364 



HOMES WITHOtri HANDS. 



is this insect which is so annoying and so useful to house 

 builders. The ants sally forth in vast columns, at least a hun- 

 dred yards in length, though not of very great width. On the 

 outside of the column are the officers, which are continually 

 running backwards and forwards, as if to see that their own 

 portions of the column are proceeding rightly. The proportion 

 of officers to workers is about five per cent., or one officer to 

 twenty workers, and they are extremely conspicuous on the 

 march, their great white heads nodding up and down as they 

 run along. 



One of the large workers is now before me, and a most formidable 

 insect it looks. Its head is round, smooth, and verj' large, and is 

 armed with a pair of enormous forceps, curved almost as sharply 

 as the horns of the chamois, and very shai-p at the points. Theii 

 length is so great, that if straightened and placed end to end, 

 they would be longer than the head and body together. They 

 are beset with minute hairs, which, when viewed under the 

 microscope, are seen to be stiff bristles, arranged in regular rings 

 round the mandibles. The thorax and abdomen are but slender, 

 and the limbs are long, giving evidence of great activity. In the 



