41 
SIR PETER BADE ON “ MY CITY GARDEN.” 
resist much when handled, but it is curious to note how they 
continue to swell their sides out, until they produce a very 
prominent rotundity of their body. After the episode of the 
Snake and my Toad, the idea suggests itself that this is intended 
to make themselves as large as possible, not from envy of the 
Ox, as stated in the fable with reference to the Frog, but to make 
themselves too large a morsel to be swallowed by the lesser of those 
animals which prey upon them. 
These “Toads in holes” would come out from their retreat in 
dry weather, a few hours before rain, after which they would again 
disappear, often for a long season. 
Insects. — There are plenty of these in every garden, however 
small ; and Bees, Flies, Beetles, and especially Spiders, would 
afford a never ending source of interest. The only insects which 
I have specially watched are Ants, nests and colonies of which 
appear and re-appear every summer upon my garden paths, or upon 
the adjacent portions of the grass-plots. 
We all know of the very numerous observers of and writers 
upon these little creatures, and their works from Huber down to 
Sir John Lubbock, will be more or less familiar to us all. Their 
industry, their building powers, their gregarious nature, their 
division of labour, their apparent working for the common good, 
their devotion to the young, their colonizing instincts, as well as 
some of the changes which their insect forms undergo, are all there 
recorded. 
And many of these things are easily to be observed by any one 
who takes the trouble. 
I can only venture here to make one or two brief notes on their 
proceedings in St. Giles’s Street. 
Both the small brown and the small black Ants are to be here 
seen, but they occupy different positions ; and not only do not 
seem to be on neighbourly terms with each other, but fight at once 
if experimentally placed together. 
The brown Ants are the more numerous, and in the summer 
months display an enormous amount of activity. Doubtless there 
is a good reason for their incessant movements, but to the ordinary 
observer these often seem to be purposeless and merely the result of 
restlessness and excess of energy. 
The favourite situation for their little Ant-hills is decidedly along 
