PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 59 
without either of these, I have matter enough to fill the 
rest of this letter with interesting traits, while I endeavour 
to teach you their language, to develop their affections 
and passions, and to delineate their virtues;—while I 
show them to you when engaged in war, and enable you 
to accompany them both in their military expeditions and 
in their emigrations,—while I make you a witness of 
their indefatigable industry and incessant labours,— or 
invite you to be present, during their hours of relaxation, 
at their sports and amusements. 
That ants, though they are mute animals, have the 
means of communicating to each other information of 
various occurrences, and use a kind of language which 
is mutually understood, will appear evident from the fol- 
lowing facts. | 
If those at the surface of a nest are alarmed, it is 
wonderful in how short a time the alarm spreads 
through the whole nest. It runs from quarter to quar- 
ter; the greatest inquietude seems to possess the com- 
munity; and they carry with all possible dispatch their 
treasures, the larvae and pupz, down to the lowest 
apartments. Amongst those species of ants that do not 
go much from home, sentinels seem to be stationed at 
the avenues of their city. Disturbing once the little 
heaps of earth thrown up at the entrances into the nest 
of &. flava, which is of this description, I was struck by 
observing a single ant immediately come out, as if to see 
what was the matter, and this three separate times. 
The F herculanea, L. inhabits the trunks of hollow 
trees on the continent, for it has not yet been found in 
England, upon which they are often passing to and fro. 
