58 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 
sonances in authors who have observed their proceedings. 
Mr. Gould also noticed but very few females in ant-nests, 
sometimes only one; but M. Huber, who had better op- 
portunities, found several, which he says live very peace- 
ably together, showing none of that spirit of rivalry so re- 
markable in the queen bee. 
And here I must close my narrative of the life and ad- 
ventures of male and female ants; but, as it will be fol- 
lowed by a history of the still more interesting proceed- 
ings of the workers, I think you will not regret the ex- 
change. I shall show these to you in many different views, 
under each of which you will find fresh reason to admire 
them. My only fear will be lest you should think the 
picture too highly coloured, and deem it incredible that 
creatures so minute should so far exceed the larger ani- 
mals in wisdom, foresight, and sagacity, and make so near 
an approach in these respects to man himself.—My facts, 
however, are derived from authorities so respectable, that 
I think they will do away any bias of this kind that you 
may feel in your mind?. 
I need not here repeat what I have said in a former 
letter concerning the exemplary attention paid by these 
kind foster-mothers to the young brood of their colonies ; 
nor shall I enlarge upon the building and nature of their 
habitations, which have been already noticed> :—but, 
@ It may be thought that many of the anecdotes related in the fol- 
lowing history of the proceedings of neuter ants could not have been 
observed by any one, unless he had been admitted into an ant-hill ; 
but it must be recollected that M. P. Huber, from whose work fife 
most extraordinary facts are copied, invented a kind of ant-hive ; so 
constructed as to enable him to observe their proceedings without 
disturbing them. » Vol. I. 4th Ed. 479. 
