516 THE AGRICULTURAL ANT. 
tens of thousands. It was a great day with the ants; and soon ` 
the place was so completely carpeted with them that it was impos 
sible to walk among them and not crush them. te 
In the course of three hours the males began to show the dread- 
ful effects of their dissolute course. They began rapidly to die. — 
The females would wring themselves loose from the males and fy — 
off, leaving them exhausted and struggling in death. They had 
fulfilled their mission, and the ground long before night was 
covered with their dead bodies. r 
I visited the place the next morning ; the wind had driven them — 
into the little gullies in the road, and there could not have been . 
less than a bushel of them. Not a female dead or alive to be seen 
anywhere amongst them. But not far off, and in the direction the 
wind was blowing at the time they made their escape from their 
_ prostrate and dying lovers, could be seen countless numbers of . 
little black piles of earth which had been thrown out of their holes — 
during the night. There were fifteen to twenty of these new pe 7 
rows to every square rod, and they were seen in that proportion 
for more than a mile. So itis plain, if there were no counteracting i 
influences, to see that they would soon occupy every available 
space. Few of them, however, proved successful, for the whole 
prairie had already been fully stocked with them. Pavement 
were to be seen every thirty or forty yards, but too new eri 
sess any mounds. Their pavements were flat when in 1868 L 
away; and now I have got back in 1873 I find they have ey 
great improvements; all have raised mounds, some of them q ae 
large. The progress they have made on their mounds and pave” 
ments is very conspicuous. ak 
This species of ant subsists almost entirely On small A 
great quantities of which they store away in their granary a 
supply food for winter. During rainy seasons in the £ Ris 
months it happens right often that the ground becoming © 
rated, the water penetrates their granaries, and swe ies 
their seeds. In this emergency they bring out the ee 
the first fair day, and exposing it to the sun until near W.G : 
take in all that is not actually sprouted. I saw them 1n Gr 
trey’s farm one day have out on a flat rock as much as 4 k 
wheat sunning. I wanted to see how they would g Kime 
so much back again, and returned again that evening JUS°" 
to see their hosts come out and carry it in in five minutes. 
