THE GREAT BLACK ANT. 
212 
nowhere. Particularly solicitous of warmth, it seeks 
the dry sunny reflection of some sheltered gravel-walk, 
or ditch-bank in a warm lane; and here it darts and 
whisks about, in seeming continual suspicion or danger ; 
starting away with angry haste, yet returning immedi- 
ately to the spot it had left ; buffeting and contending 
with every winged fly that approaches, with a jealous, 
pugnacious fury, that keeps it in constant agitation. 
This action, its long projecting proboscis, and its pretty, 
spotted wings, placed at right angles with its body, dis- 
tinguish our bombylius from every other creature. It 
appears singularly cautious of settling on the ground. 
After long hovering over and surveying some open spot, 
with due deliberation and the utmost gentleness it com- 
mits its long, delicate feet to the earth ; but on the ap- 
proach of any winged insect, or on the least alarm, is 
away again to combat or escape. Associates it has none: 
the approach even of its own race excites its ire, and, 
darting at them with the celerity of thought, it drives 
them from its haunts. When a captive it becomes tame 
and subdued, and loses all its characterestic bustling 
and activity, the inspiration of freedom. 
The great black ant (formica fuliginosa) is commonly 
found in all little copses, animating by its numbers 
those large heaps of vegetable fragments, which it col- 
lects and is constantly increasing with unwearied in- 
dustry and perseverance as a receptacle for its eggs. 
The game-fowl, the woodpecker, the wryneck, and all 
the birds that feed upon the little red ant, and soon de- 
populate the hillocks which they select, do not seem 
equally to annoy this larger species. These systematic 
creatures appear always to travel from and return to 
their nests in K direct lines, from which no trifling ob- 
stacle will divert them ; and any interruption on this 
public highway they resent, menacing the intruder with 
their vengeance. A neighbor related to me an instance 
of this unyielding disposition, which he witnessed in 
one of our lanes. Two parties of these black ants were 
proceeding from different nests upon a foraging expe- 
dition, when the separate bodies happened to meet each 
other. Neither would give way ; and a violent contest 
