3256 Insects, 



Notes on Observations in Natural History during a Tour in Norway. 

 By the Rev. Alfred Charles Smith, M.A. 



(Concluded from page 3230). 



Insects. — Having devoted several papers to the birds, quadrupeds, 

 and fishes of Norway, it would be invidious to omit all mention of the 

 insects, which abound to a great degree : and the entomologist would 

 be delighted both by the beauty and number of the species of moths, 

 butterflies, and other insects which are to be met with in that coun- 

 try, and which must strike every indifferent observer ; and when seen 

 collected together, as they may be seen at the botanical gardens of 

 Christiania (a collection formed by the indefatigable exertions of the 

 Director's son, Herr Siebke, jun.), one is surprized that species so nu- 

 merous, and forms so delicate, and colours so brilliant, should exist in 

 a country where the winter has dominion for nine months in the year. 



No one can journey through the forests one single day without be- 

 ing struck by the enormous ant-hills which abound there : though 

 certainly they become perfectly Lilliputian when compared with those 

 described by Mr. Gordon Cumming, as existing along the Limfropo 

 and in the interior of Africa, and which he says are commonly seen 

 twenty feet in height and a hundred feet in circumference ; yet to one 

 unaccustomed to such monstrous mountains of ants, the ant-hills of 

 Norway appear sufficiently enormous. These hills vary from two to 

 three and a half and four feet in height ; they resemble a pyramid of 

 dried fir-leaves, and are tenanted by myriads of black ants. I say 

 black ants, for that is their prevailing colour and general appearance 

 as you see them hurrying over the ground, although on examination 

 their bodies are seen to be red, their heads, legs and abdomen jet 

 black : they seem to cover the surface of the ground throughout the 

 forests ; indeed it is difficult to find a square yard where one of these 

 busy diligent ants is not scampering along. If their heap is disturb- 

 ed, out they come in tens of thousands, and carry off their eggs which 

 have been disarranged, and otherwise lose no time in repairing their 

 habitations. If you sit on a fallen tree, or lie down for your mid-day 

 bivouac, or take your siesta in the forest, you are certain on awaken- 

 ing to find yourself overrun with these large black ants ; but notwith- 

 standing this happened to me almost every day, I was never stung or 

 in any way inconvenienced by them, as a good shake always dislodged 

 them at once. T am told that the bears eat them and their eggs, — a 





