352 
OBSERVATIONS ON 
themselves, do boys, by way of play, carry heavy weights 
by only a piece of wet leather at the end of a string clapped 
close on the surface of a stone. 
TIPUL^, OR EMPIDES. 
May. Millions of EmpideSj or Tipulce, come forth at the 
close of day, and swarm to such a degree as to fill the air. 
At this juncture they sport and copulate ; as it grows more 
dark they retire. All day they hide in the hedges. As 
they rise in a cloud they appear like smoke. 
I do not ever remember to have seen such swarms, except 
in the fens of the Isle of Ely. They appear most over 
grass grounds. 
ANTS. 
August 23. Every ant hill about this time is in a strange 
hurry and confusion ; and all the winged ants, agitated by 
some violent impulse, are leaving their homes, and, bent on 
emigration, swarm by myriads in the air, to the great 
emolument of the Hirundines , which fare luxuriously. 
Those that escape the swallows return no more to their 
nests, but, looking out for fresh settlements, lay a founda- 
tion for future colonies. All the females at this time are 
pregnant : the males that escape being eaten wander away 
and die. 
October 2. Flying ants, male and female, usually swarm 
and migrate on hot sunny days in August and September ; 
but this day a vast emigration took place in my garden, 
and myriads came forth, in appearance, from the drain 
which goes under the fruit wall; filling the air and the 
adjoining trees and shrubs with their numbers. The 
females were full of eggs. This late swarming is probably 
owing to the backward, 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 aureliae of smaller ants, 
which they seize by violence.^ 
^ In my "Naturalist's Calendar" for the year 1777, on September 
6 th, I find the following note to the article Flying Ants : — 
