320 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 
queen; some of them gently walk over her, others dance round her: she 
is generally encircled with a cluster of attendants, who, if you separate 
them from her, soon collect themselves into a body, and enclose her in the 
midst.” Nay, even if she dies, as if they were unwilling to believe it, 
they continue sometimes for months the same attentions to her, and treat 
her with the same courtly formality as if she were alive, and they will 
brush her and lick her incessantly.? 
This homage paid by the workers to their queens, according to Gould, 
is temporary and local ;— when she had laid eggs in any cell, their atten- 
tions, he observed, seemed to relax, and she became unsettled and uneasy, 
In the summer months she is to be met with in various apartments in the 
colony ; and eggs also are to be seen in several places, which induced him 
to believe that, having deposited a parcel in one, she retires to another for 
the same purpose, thus frequently changing her situation and attendants, 
As there are always a number of lodgments void of eggs, but full of ants, 
she is never at a loss for an agreeable station and submissive retinue; and 
by the time she has gone her rounds in this manner, the eggs first laid are 
brought to perfection, and her old attendants are glad to receive her again, 
Yet this inattention after oviposition is not invariable; the female and 
neuter sometimes unite together in the same cell after the eggs are laid, 
On this occasion the workers divide their attention; and if you disturb 
them, some will run to the defence of their queen, as well as of the egas, 
which last, however, are the great objects of their solicitude. This state- 
ment differs somewhat from M. Huber’s; but different species vary in 
their instincts, which will account for this and similar dissonances 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 opportunities, found several, which he says live very peace- 
ably together, showing none of that spirit of rivalry so remarkable in the 
queen-bee. 
And here [ must close my narrative of the life and adventures of male 
and female ants; but, as it will be followed by a history of the still more 
interesting proceedings 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 and their wonderful in- 
stincts. 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 animals 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 
with 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 [ enlarge upon the building and nature 
1 Gould, p. 24—. 
2 Compare Gould, p. 25., with Huber, 125. note (1), 
5 It may be thought that many of the anecdotes related in the following 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 the most extraordinary facts are copied, invented a kind of ante 
hive, so constructed as to enable him to observe their proceedings without disturbing 
them, 
