33S 
NATURAL HISTORY. 
as well of the vegetable as of the animal kind. Small insects 
they will kill and devour ; sweets of all kinds they are parti- 
cularly fond of. They seldom, however, think ol their com- 
munity, till they themselves are first satiated. Having found 
a juicy fruit, they swallow what they can, and then tearing 
it in pieces, carry home their load. If they meet with an in- 
sect above their match, several of them will fall upon it at 
once, and having mangled it, each will carry ofi a part of the 
spoil. If they meet, in their excursion, any thing that is too 
heavy for one to bear, and yet, which they are unable to di- 
vide, several of them will endeavour to force it along; some 
dragging and others pushing. If any one of them happens 
to make a lucky discovery, it will immediately give advice to 
others ; and then, at once the whole republic will put them- 
selves in motion. If in these struggles, one of them hap- 
pens to be killed, some kind survivor will carry him off to a 
great distance, to prevent the obstruction his body may give 
to the general spirit of industry. 
But while they are thus employed in supporting the state, 
in feeding abroad, and carrying in provisions to those that 
continue at home, they are not unmindful of posterity. After 
a few days of fine weather, the female ants begin to lay their 
eggs, and those are as assiduously watched and protected by 
the working ants, who take upon themselves to supply what- 
ever is wanting to the nascent animal’s convenience or neces- 
sity. They are carried, as soon as laid, to the safest situa- 
tion, at the bottom of their hill, where they are carefully de- 
fended from cold and moisture. We are not to suppose that 
those white substances which we so plentifully find in every 
ant-hill, are the eggs as newly laid. On the contrary, the 
ant’s egg is so very small, that though laid upon a black 
ground, it can scarcely be discerned. The little white bodies 
we see, are the young animals in their maggot state, en- 
dued with life, long since freed from the egg, and often in- 
volved in a cone, which it has spun round itself, like the 
silkworm. The real egg, when laid, if viewed through a 
microscope, appears smooth, polished and shining, while 
the maggot is seen composed of twelve rings, and is often 
larger than the ant itself. 
It is impossible to express the fond attachment which the 
working ants shew to their rising progeny. In cold weather 
they lake them in their mouths, but without offering them the 
smallest injury, to the very depths of their habitation, where 
they are less subject to the severity of the season. In a fine 
day they remove them, with the same care, nearer the surface, 
where their maturity may be assisted by the warm beams of 
