278 OBSERVATIONS ON 



ward, wet season. The day following, not 

 one flying ant was to be seen. 



Horse-ants travel home to their nests 

 laden with flies, which they have caught, 

 and the aurelise of smaller ants, which they 

 seize by violence. White. 



In my Naturalist's Calendar for the year 

 1777, on September 6th, I find the follow- 

 ing note to the article Flying Ants : 



I saw a prodigious swarm of these ants 

 flying about the top of some tall elm-trees 

 (close by my house); some were conti- 

 nually dropping to the ground as if from 

 the trees, and others rising up from the 

 ground : many of them were joined toge- 

 ther in copulation ; and I imagine their life 

 is but short, for as soon as produced from 

 the egg by the heat of the sun, they pro- 

 pagate their species, and soon after perish. 

 They were black, somewhat like the small 

 black ant, and had four wings. I saw 

 also, at another place, a large sort which 

 were yellowish. On the 8th of September, 

 1785, I again observed the same circum- 



