LETTERS ON ENTOMOLOGY. lOo 
queror Timour being once forced to take shelter 
from his enemies in a ruined building, where he 
sat alone many hours, desirous of diverting his 
mind from his hopeless condition, he fixed his 
observation upon an ant that was carrying a 
grain of corn (probably a pupa) larger than itself 
up a liigh wall. Sixty-nine times the grain fell 
to the ground, but the seventieth time the ant 
reached the top of the wall. " This sight (said 
Timour) gave me courage at the moment, and I 
have never forgotten the lesson it conveyed." 
You must not suppose that the ants have all 
work and no play. They find time for their 
sports and games, which have been described by 
Gould and Bonnet; but Huber gives the most 
circumstantial account of them. He once ap- 
proached one of the nests of the hill-ants, ex- 
posed to the sun and sheltered from the north ; 
here the ants were basking together in great 
numbers, and gamboling about. None were 
working, so that it seemed a general holiday : 
let us imagine it a festival given on some great 
occasion. He saw them approach, moving their 
antennae very quickly, and with their fore feet 
pat the cheeks of other ants ; after, they reared 
up and seemed to wrestle, and seized each other 
in different ways ; then let go to renew the at- 
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