MASON-ANTS. 259 



smooth unbroken surface. These stories are not 

 horizontal ; they follow the slope of the ant-hill, and 

 lie one upon another to the ground-floor, which com- 

 municates with the subterranean lodges. They are 

 not always, however, arranged with the same regu- 

 larity, for these ants do not follow an invariable 

 plan ; it appears, on the contrary, that nature has 

 allowed them a certain latitude in this respect, and 

 that they can, according to circumstances, modify 

 them to their wish ; but, however fantastical their 

 habitations may appear, we always observe they have 

 been formed by concentrical stories. On examining 

 each story separately, we observe a number of cavi- 

 ties or halls, lodges of narrower dimensions, and long 

 galleries, which serve for general communication. 

 The arched ceilings covering the most spacious 

 places are supported either by little columns, slender 

 walls, or by regular buttresses. We also notice cham- 

 bers, that have but one entrance, communicating with 

 the lower story, and large open spaces, serving as a 

 kind of cross-road (carrefour), in which all the 

 streets terminate. 



" Such is the manner in which the habitations of 

 these ants are constructed. Upon opening them, we 

 commonly find the apartments, as well as the large 

 open spaces, filled with adult ants ; and always ob- 

 served their pupae collected in the apartments more 

 or less near the surface. This, however, seems re- 

 gulated by the hour of the day, and the temperature : 

 for in this respect these ants are endowed with great 

 sensibility, and know the degree of heat best adapted 

 for their young. The ant-hill contains, sometimes, 

 more than twenty stories in its upper portion, and at 

 least as many under the surface of the ground. By 

 this arrangement the ants are enabled, with the 

 greatest facility, to regulate the heat. When a too 

 burning sun overheats their upper apartments, they 

 withdraw their little ones to the bottom of the ant- 



