268 INSECT ARCHITECTURE. 



in concert, but each individual separately. There 

 is, consequently, an occasional want of coincidence 

 in the walls and arches ; but this does not much 

 embarrass them, for a worker, on discovering an 

 error of this kind, seems to know how to rectify it, 

 as appears from the following observations. 



" A wall," says M. Huber, " had been erected, 

 with the view of sustaining a vaulted ceiling, still 

 incomplete, that had been projected towards the wall 

 of the opposite chamber. The workman who began 

 constructing it had given it too little elevation to 

 meet the opposite partition, upon which it was to 

 rest. Had it been continued on the original plan, it 

 must infallibly have met the wall at about one half 

 of its height; and this it was necessary to avoid. 

 This state of things very forcibly claimed my atten- 

 tion ; when one of the ants arriving at the place, and 

 visiting the works, appeared to be struck by the dif- 

 ficulty which presented itself; but this it as soon 

 obviated, by taking clown the ceiling, and raising the 

 wall upon which it reposed. It then, in my presence, 

 constructed a new ceiling with the fragments of the 

 former one. 



" When the ants commence any undertaking, one 

 would suppose that they worked after some precon- 

 ceived idea, which, indeed, would seem verified by 

 the execution. Thus, should any ant discover upon 

 the nest two stalks of plants which lie crossways, a 

 disposition favourable to the construction of a lodge, 

 or some little beams that may be useful in forming 

 its angles and sides, it examines the several parts 

 with attention ; then distributes, with much sagacity 

 and address, parcels of earth in the spaces, and 

 along the stems, taking from every quarter materials 

 adapted to its object, sometimes not caring to destroy 

 the work that others had commenced ; so much are 

 its motions regulated by the idea it has conceived, 



