their home, may happen to meet with her, and if so, they unite their labours with hers in excavating a small and humble dwelling in the earth, which serves as the nucleus of a future colony: in all operations the female, now a queen, takes a most energetic part, and continues to labour until she has laid eggs, when the conduct of the workers undergoes a great change, for they now treat her with the most marked respect, and consider her worthy the honours of a sovereign. But it not unfrequently happens that the queen or mother ant, excavates without assistance her future dwelling-place, and in perfect solitude lays her eggs, feeds the larvæ, and pays every requisite attention to the pupæ. Slave Ants.-The most remarkable fact connected with the history of ants, is the propensity possessed by certain species to kidnap the workers of other species, and compel them to labour for the benefit of the community, thus using them completely as slaves; and, as far as we yet know, the kidnappers are red or pale-coloured ants, and the slaves, like the ill-treated natives of Africa, are of a jet black.

The time for capturing slaves extends over a period of about ten weeks, and never commences until the male and female ants are about emerging from the pupa state, and thus the ruthless marauders never interfere with the continuation of the species: this instinct seems specially provided, for were the slave ants created for no other end than to fill the station of slavery to which they appear to be doomed, still even that office must fail were the attacks to be made on their nests before the winged myriads have departed, or are departing, charged with the duty of continuing their kind.

When the red ants are about to sally forth on a marauding expedition, they send scouts to ascertain the exact position in which a colony of negroes may be found; these scouts having discovered the object of their search, return

to the nest and report their success.

Shortly afterwards

the army of red ants marches forth, headed by a vanguard, which is perpetually changing; the individuals which constitute it, when they have advanced a little before the main body, halting, falling into the rear, and being replaced by others: this vanguard consists of eight or ten ants only. When they have arrived near the negro colony, they disperse, wandering through the herbage and hunting about, as if aware of the propinquity of the object of their search, yet ignorant of its exact position. At last they discover the settlement, and the foremost of the invaders rushing impetuously to the attack, are met, grappled with, and frequently killed by the negroes on guard: the alarm is quickly communicated to the interior of the nest; the negroes sally forth by thousands, and the red ants rushing to the rescue, a desperate conflict ensues, which, however, always terminates in the defeat of the negroes, who retire to the innermost recesses of their habitation. Now follows the scene of pillage; the red ants with their powerful mandibles tear open the sides of the negro ant-hill, and rush into the heart of the citadel. In a few minutes each of the invaders emerges, carrying in its mouth the pupa of a worker negro, which it has obtained in spite of the vigilance and valour of its natural guardians. The red ants return in perfect order to their nest, bearing with them their living burdens. On reaching the nest the pupæ appear to be treated precisely as their own, and the workers. when they emerge perform the various duties of the community with the greatest energy and apparent good will; they repair the nest, excavate passages, collect food, feed the larvæ, take the pupa into the sun-shine, and perform every office which the welfare of the colony seems to require; in fact, they conduct themselves entirely as if fulfilling their original destination.

One of the authors of the 'Introduction to Entomology' being in Paris in 1817, called on the late M. Latreille, and accompanied by that learned entomologist, visited the Bois de Boulogne for the purpose of observing this singular phenomenon, and was highly gratified in being able com pletely to verify the whole of M. Huber's statements.

THE Sexton beetle is about an inch in length; it is of a black colour, and so fetid that the hands smell for hours after handling it; and if it crawl on woollen clothes which are not washed, the smell continues for several days. The sexton beetle lays its eggs in the bodies of putrifying dead animals, which, when practicable, it buries in the ground. In Russia, where the poor people are buried but a few inches below the surface of the ground, the sexton beetles avail themselves of the bodies for this purpose, and the graves are pierced with their holes in every direction; at evening, hundreds of these beetles may be seen in the church-yards,

* Authority:-Rusticus of Godalming. See Entomological Magazine, vol. iii. p. 506.

either buzzing over recent graves, or emerging from them. The sexton beetle in this country seldom finds so convenient a provision for him, and he is under the necessity of taking much more trouble; he sometimes avails himself of dead dogs and horses, but these are too great rarities to be his constant resort; the usual objects of his search are dead mice, rats, birds, frogs, and moles; of these a bird is most commonly obtained. In the neighbourhood of towns, every kind of garbage that is thrown out attracts these beetles as soon as it begins to smell, and it is not unusual to see them settling in our streets, enticed by the grateful odour of such substances. The sexton beetles hunt in couples, male and female; and where six or eight are found in a large animal, they are almost sure to be males and females, in equal numbers; they hunt by scent only, the chase being mostly performed when no other sense would be very available, viz., in the night. When they have found a bird, great comfort is expressed by the male, who wheels round and round above it, like a vulture over the putrifying carcass of some giant of the forest,—the female settles on it at once, without this testimonial of satisfaction; the male at last settles also, and a savoury and ample meal is made before the great work is begun. After the beetles have appeased the calls of hunger, the bird is abandoned for a while; they both leave it to explore the earth in the neighbourhood, and ascertain whether there is a place suitable for interment; if on a ploughed field there is no difficulty; but if on grass, or among stones, much labour is required to draw it to a more suitable place. The operation of burying is performed almost entirely by the male beetle, the female mostly hiding herself in the body of the bird about to be buried, or sitting quietly upon it, and allowing herself to be buried with it: the male begins by digging a furrow all round the bird, at the distance