me while writing this story. In our garden there was & nest of the garden ant undermining the borders of the flower-beds. It was necessary to disturb them, and numbers having built in and around the box edging they had to be summarily dislodged; a fluid, fatal to insect life, sent numbers to the right-about, and with them a number of helpless pups. The liquid being glutinous, these latter were transfixed to the gravel; but no sooner had the careful nurses recovered from the shock which spared a few of themselves, than they returned to their charge, and the day after all the pupa were removed to a place of safety, though in all probability they were all destroyed.

Our Crystal Palace friend observing his ants exhibited some fondness for a small spider, an experiment was made with a black beetle, which was put alive amongst them. One little fellow of an ant immediately grabbed hold of one of the beetle's legs, and held on as an ant will hold, as in a vice. The beetle proving the stronger and getting free, it must have been very amusing to see such a black Goliatl fleeing before such a red David. But the beetle ran into a cluster of ants, in his frenzy, who were feeding upon some dissolved sugar; directly the monster made his appearance they flew at him in a body like an army of bull-dogs, hanging on him, so that he could only rid himself by madly plunging into the water which was at hand. This was terrible for the ants, and but for the observer's help this would have very soon settled the ants' business. The beetle was now safe, his ability to swim proving the means of escape; but it was only for a time, for on again venturing on land he was again attacked by his indomitable foe, and very soon there was nothing left but an empty shell.

There would appear to be the same diversity of "mind' --if we may call instinct by that name, as we do intelligence in ourselves amongst insects that there is amongst men; there are stupid ants as well as selfish ones. Are there not plenty of each in human kind ?

A foreigner recently describing a grand picture illustrating our Lord's parable of the wise and foolish virgins, pointing to the latter said, "Zem is ze stoopids!"

Thus many of the ants at Sydenham showed no regard either for their own safety or others' welfare, appearing to be entirely absorbed in their own consideration; for whilst nurses of some nests would attend to an infant although belonging to another nest, some would even neglect the little ones which especially belonged to themselves.

When food fell short, to save themselves the inconvenience of dying, many slaughtered each other, and I suppose, cannibal-like, then fed upon the remains. Episodes of insect life in the matter of self-destruction certainly rank amongst the most romantic in all natural history. I have told you of a certain wasp which, being cut in two, with its severed head proceeded to devour its own abdomen. The Romans, we know, murdered in cold blood their sickly children;—perhaps they had studied only the worst features in ant life.

Amongst the varied duties of a nurse, to which attention has already been directed, those of attending the birth of an infant appears to be the most striking. Every observer of ants may see for himself an analogy which will surprise and delight him, as he notices the care and patience they exercise in the delicate work they have to do when the right time has arrived; for, just as in the life of the honey bee the nurses there know exactly the time when the cell may be broken into and the prisoner released, when, passing through its former life, it has reached the perfect stage of being, so do the ant nurses know when the pupa case which encloses the perfect insect, waiting to be unrolled, may be safely opened; and this operation is performed with all the attention and care of the most experienced surgeon. The larger jaws act the part of scissors, and the feet and antennæ supply all other necessaries in the operation. An incision is made round the middle of the pupa;

then two of the six legs are gently withdrawn from the enclosure; and then, bit by bit-often other assistance being necessary when the first operator is unable to succeed-the baby ant comes into the world. It sometimes, however, happens that failure attends the operation, either from the inexperience of the operator or the position of the pupa. That there are skilled ant nurses and ignorant ones there is no doubt, for it happened with the Sydenham ants that what one left as impossible," others, passing while the operation was being performed and lending a hand, succeeded in accomplishing.

When an ant is irritated it emits a sour fluid containing both formic and mallic acid; these have not only a very disagreeable flavour, but an extremely pungent smell, and to an opposing ant the effect of an adversary's "squirt" appears to be the most effective of defence. The Bombardier beetle has a similar method of defending itself; for when hotly pursued, and its enemy is close upon its track, a small report is heard, and a horrible liquid is forcibly thrown from the hinder part of its body, which, blinding the enemy, facilitates its victim's escape.

It was so with some of the ants at the palace. Their owner got up a fight between a large red ant and some black ones. The moment the former, who was a stranger and a foreigner, came near the latter he seemed in a great state of alarm, and turned tail directly one of the black ones came near him; but when one came forward and challenged him to single combat the Edomite seized the negro by the fore-legs, hugged him as bears do hug each other when they are not affectionate, using his powerful jaws in a very terrible manner, and then, leaving his black adversary senseless, he ran wildly about for some time seeking an exit, but falling in with an army of his adversary's companions he was mercilessly despatched.

The wounded ant in the above insect duel again exhibiting signs of life, microscopical examination discovered his

legs completely disabled, and the head deluged with formic acid; but it must have repaid the observer's patient attention to have seen other of the wounded insect's friends at last coming to the rescue of their fallen brother, for a number collected and began striking him with their antennæ; at last they helped him into the nest, where we may hope his recovery was completed.

It has been often observed that the eye was formed for light and light for the eye. Ants and bees, however, appear to prefer the darkness for their work—and yet their deeds are not evil; for while the bee collects its raw material during the day, and prepares its honey during the night season, the ant will avoid all light for carrying on the various duties in its home.

Bees have, without doubt, the power of distinguishing colour. A friend near Leatherhead, in Surrey, having a great number of bees, has contrived in some large hives to keep the colonies separate by painting the entrances in different shades of colour. But Sir John Lubbock ascertained by experiment that different rays of the spectrum act on ants in a different manner from that in which they affect us. He endeavoured, with admirable patience, to determine how far the limit of vision in the eye of an ant agrees with that in the eye of a man; and how deeply interesting was the result! He first observed, that directly an ants' nest is disturbed the nurses carry their young away into a place of safety; this is invariably into the dark, and he appears to think this is because the insect has an objection to light. By various scientific experiments with the spectrum he found they invariably preferred darkness to light, and that colour which to us was the most transparent was otherwise to them; and that an ant can see colour which to us is invisible except under extraordinary circumstances. He therefore arrived at the conclusion that colour has not the same effect upon ant vision that it has upon man; and that, therefore, light may have a

different effect upon an ant's brain to what it has upon our own. The wise king said, "A pleasant thing it is for the eyes to behold the sun;" and sure we are that He who made the many eyes which you would admiringly see with the microscope in the head of the insect, intended it should enjoy the light when performing its duties in the upper world.

Variation of food in the life of a bee, strange to say, will vary the character of the insect. We know the effect of feeding upon the roots of plants on some of the uncivilized tribes of Africa: it produces horrible distortion and premature decay, but we could never believe it could change the species. But as with the bee, so with the ant; we have it on Sir John's authority that, by selection of food, ants can produce either a queen or a worker at will from a given egg. This is very remarkable in the case of the bee, because a queen bee is totally unlike any other bee, both in size and structure: only the queen lays eggs, both amongst ants as well as bees; the workers and nurses never, and certainly never the drones; and yet a worker egg developing a worker larva, when fed with royal bread, which is different from ordinary bread, becomes a queen. This is most remarkable, and almost incredible in the case of the bee, and, according to the highest authority, the ant also. The worker larva, royally fed, "comes out " one third earlier in time than if it had been reared as a worker; and yet it has to be much more developed, and according to ordinary analogy should have had a slower growth. Then its reproductive organs are more fully developed : the ovary of a queen bee is amongst the most remarkable part of her majesty-totally unlike that of an ordinary bee. Then, again, its size, shape, and colour are all different; its jaws are shorter, its head rounder, its hindlegs without bread-baskets. A queen has never to do any work, of course, nor has she need of wax-pouches, for she neither collects pollen nor makes either wax or honey