PERFECE? SOCINTIES OF INSECTS. 93 
relate them to you. ‘They concern chiefly the great hill-ant 
(2. rufa), though several other species occasionally emi- 
grate. 
Some of the neuters having found a spot which they 
judge convenient for a new habitation, apparently with- 
out consulting the rest of the society, determine upon an 
emigration, and thus they compass their intention: The 
first step is to raise recruits :—with this view they eagerly 
accost several fellow citizens of their own order, caress 
them with their antennee, lead them by their mandibles, and 
evidently appear to propose the journey to them. If they 
seem disposed to accompany them, the recruiting officer, 
for so it may be called, prepares to carry off his recruit, 
who, suspending himself upon his mandibles, hangs coiled 
up spirally under his neck ;—all this passes in an ami- 
cable manner after mutual salutations. Sometimes, how- 
ever, the recruiter takes the other by surprise, and drags 
him from the ant-hill without giving him time to consider 
or resist. When arrived at the proposed habitation, the 
suspended ant uncoils itself, and, quitting its conductor, 
becomes a recruiter in its turn. ‘The pair return to the 
old nest, and each carries off a fresh recruit, which being 
arrived at the spot joins in the undertaking :—thus the 
number of recruiters keeps progressively increasing, till 
the path between the new and the old city is full of goers 
and comers, each of the former laden with a recruit. 
What a singular and amusing scene is then exhibited of 
the little people thus employed! When an emigration 
of a rufescent colony is going forward, the negroes are 
seen carrying their masters: and the contrast of the red 
with the black renders it peculiarly striking. ‘The little 
turf-ants (F. cespitum, 1.) upon these occasions carry 
