82 



PEBFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 



and so the feasting continued till about four o'clock, when 

 the black birds, who had never been long absent from the 

 calibash and poisdoux trees in the neighbourhood, darted down 

 among them, and destroyed by millions those who were too 

 sluggish to make good their retreat. By five o'clock the 

 whole was over ; before sun-down, the negro-houses were all 

 cleared in the same way ; and they told me that they had 

 seen the black birds hovering about the almond trees close to 

 the negro-houses, as early as seven in the morning. I never 

 saw those black birds before or since, and the negroes assured 

 me that they were never seen but at such times." 1 



I shall now relate to you some other portions of Myrmi- 

 donian History, which, though perhaps not so striking and 

 wonderful as the preceding details, are not devoid of interest, 

 and will serve to exemplify their incredible diligence, labour, 

 and ingenuity. 



In this country it is commonly in March, earlier or later 

 according to the season, that ants first make their appearance, 

 and they continue their labours till the middle or latter end 

 of October. They emerge usually from their subterranean 

 winter-quarters on some sunny day; when, assembling in 

 crowds on the surface of the formicary, they may be observed 

 in continual motion, walking incessantly over it and one 

 another, without departing from home; as if their object, 

 before they resumed their employments, was to habituate 

 themselves to the action of the air and sun. 2 This prepara- 

 tion requires a few days, and then the business of the year 

 commences. The earliest employment of ants is most pro- 

 bably to repair the injuries which their habitation has received 

 during their state of inactivity : this observation more par- 

 ticularly applies to the hill-ant (F. rufa), all the upper 

 stories of whose dwellings are generally laid flat by the winter 

 rains and snow ; but every species, it may well be supposed, 

 has at this season some deranged apartments to restore to 

 order, or some demolished ones to rebuild. 



1 Mrs. Carmichael on the West Indies, quoted in Saturday Magazine, 1833, 

 p. 150. 



* Gould, 67. De Geer, ii. 1054. 



