86 ANTS AND ANT LIFE. 



mentioned, at a great distance from the nest, with which it 

 is connected by a subterranean tunnel. 



" If the nest of the yellow-red ants is watched at different 

 times during the day," says Blanchard, "the observer will be 

 surprised to see the alterations continually in progress. 

 Coming in the early morning, all in the dwelling seem asleep. 

 No entrances are to be found. At most, a few interspaces 

 suggest the idea that the inhabitants might make their way 

 through these little openings. Soon a few appear on the top 

 of the dome and run about. Gradually more and more 

 appear, and they may now be seen carrying little bits of 

 wood with which they clear out the entrances. If the 

 weather be fine, the most roomy passages and those which 

 communicate with the chief chambers within the nest are 

 opened, and now the whole community is busy and at work. 

 When evening approaches, the industrious insects close the 

 entrances. They wish to pass the night peacefully and 

 sheltered from foreign attacks. The doors are quickly shut 

 if a sudden shower penetrates. All hasten to this ta.-k so 

 quickly that the object is attained in a few moments." These 

 remarkable habits are very easy to observe, and yet Peter 

 Huber was the first to describe them and to show that they 

 were intentional. Huber also gives all particulars, relating 

 how the ants use little beams to close or to roof their galleries, 

 and cover the openings with them; and how they then, as 

 the work progresses, bring ever smaller pieces to the heap. 

 At last he exclaims : " Is not this the work of our car- 

 penters in petto, when they build the gable of a house. 

 Nature always appears to have made first the discoveries on 

 which we pride ourselves." Huber is right. If clear ob- 

 servers had existed among primitive men, the knowledge 

 which civilised nations have taken centuries to obtain would 

 have been won far more rapidly. 



Forel says that all species of ants, without exception, keep 

 their dwellings more or less firmly shut, and only open them 

 when and for so long as they are required for the workers, or 

 for the swarming of the males and fertile females. For the 

 closure they use any materials which come handy, earth, little 

 stones, leaves, scraps of wood, pebbles, etc. Perty (" On 

 the Intellectual Life of Animals," 187G, p. 336, 2nd ed.) 

 relates after Hennings, that an English observer noticed that 

 ants put a thin piece of slate over the chief entrance of 



