small stones which lay below the flat stone that the colony in its new sphere was brought into view.  Our investigation once again excited the restless beings.  Then ensued, for the second time, the seizure of the chrysalides, which, however, were to be seen packed together in a secure position and already partly covered with particles of earth and sand.  To have reached the position in which we found them, the insects must have descended at least three inches after entering below the stone, and the labor of the continual ascent in search of fresh chrysalides must therefore have been of no light kind.  We saw enough to convince us that the ants had already settled down in a new organization, which, with an undisturbed history, might repeat the peaceful state of their former life; and we also had the thought presented, that in the exercise of their duties under the pressure of an unwonted exigency, the insect behaved and acted with no small degree of intelligence, and apparently in harmonious concert to the desired end.

But the thoughts suggested by the brief observation of the disturbed ant’s nest hardly end thus.  We may very naturally proceed to inquire into the regular organization and constitution of the ant colony, and also, as far as fact and theory may together lead, into the analogies—­if analogies there be—­which exist between the social instincts of ants and the ways of the higher animals, man included.

[Illustration:  FIG. 1. 1, Winged termite; 2, wingless termite; 3, soldier; 4, worker; 5, female swollen with eggs.]

The common ants and their neighbors belong to the order of insects known as the Hymenoptera, a group represented by other insects of “social” habits, such as bees, wasps, and hornets.  The termites, or white ants of the tropics, are the only “ants” foreign to this order of insects, the white ants being near relations of the dragonflies, may-flies, etc.  The family history of the latter, as told by Mr. Bates, may serve to introduce us agreeably to ant society at large.  The nests of the termites may attain a height of five feet, and present the appearance of conical hillocks, formed of earth particles “worked,” says Mr. Bates, “with a material as hard as stone.”  In the neighborhood of the nests, narrow covered galleries or underground ways are everywhere to be seen, these latter being the passages along which the materials used for building the nests are conveyed.  The termites are small soft-bodied animals of a pale color, but resemble the common or true ants in that they live in colonies, composed, like those of bees, of three chief grades of individuals.  These grades are known as males, females, and blind “neuters,” the latter forming at once the largest bulk of the population, and including in their numbers the true “working classes” of this curious community.  In the common ants, the “neuters” are regarded as being Undeveloped female insects.  These neuters exhibit in the termites a further division into ordinary “workers” (Figs. 1, 4), which perform the multifarious duties connected with the ordinary life of the colony, and “soldiers” (3), which perfectly exemplify the laws of military organization in higher life, in that they have no part in the common labor, but devote themselves entirely to the defence of the colony and to the