of a somewhat capricious kind. In a few hours after their queen is lost, the whole hive is in a state of confusion. A singular humming is heard, and the bees are seen moving all over the surface of the combs with great rapidity. The news spread quickly, and when the queen is restored, quiet immediately succeeds. But if another queen is put upon them, they instantly discover the trick, and, surrounding her, they either suffocate or starve her to death. This happens if the false queen is introduced within a few hours after the first is lost or removed; but if twenty-four hours have elapsed, they will receive any queen, and obey her.

The labours and the policy of the Ants are, when closely examined, still more wonderful, perhaps than those of the Bee. Their nest is a city consisting of dwelling-places, halls, streets, and squares, into which the streets open. The food they principally like is the honey which comes from another insect found in their neighbourhood, and which they, generally speaking, bring home from day to day as they want it. Later discoveries have shown that they do not eat grain, but live almost entirely on animal food and this honey. Some kinds of ant have the foresight to bring home the insects on whose honey they feed, and keep them in particular cells, where they guard them to prevent their escaping, and feed them with proper vegetable matter which they do not eat themselves. Nay, they obtain the eggs of those insects, and superintend their hatching, and then rear the young insect until he becomes capable of supplying the desired honey. They sometimes remove them to the strongest parts of their nest, where there are cells apparently fortified for protecting them from invasion. In those cells the insects are kept to supply the wants of the whole ants which compose the population of the city. It is a most singular circumstance in the economy of nature, that the degree of cold at which the ant becomes torpid is also that at which this insect falls into the same state. It is considerably below the freezing point; so that they require food the greater part of the winter, and if the insects on which they depend for food were not kept alive

during the cold in which the ants can move about, the latter would be without the means of subsistence.

How trifling soever this little animal may appear in our climate, there are few more formidable creatures than the ant of some tropical countries. A traveller who lately filled a high station in the French government, Mr. Malouet, has described one of their cities, and, were not the account confirmed by various testimonies, it might seem exaggerated. He observed at a great distance what seemed a lofty structure, and was informed by his guide that it consisted of an ant hill, which could not be approached without danger of being devoured. Its height was from 15 to 20 feet, and its base 30 or 40 feet square. Its sides inclined like the lower part of a pyramid, the point being cut off. He was informed that it became necessary to destroy these nests, by raising a sufficient force to dig a trench all round, and fill it with fagots, which were afterwards set on fire; and then battering with cannon from a distance, to drive the insects out and make them run into the flames. This was in South America; and African travellers have met with them in the same formidable numbers and strength.

The old writers of books upon the habits of some animals abound with stories which may be of doubtful credit. But the facts now stated respecting the Ant and Bee, may be relied on as authentic. They are the result of very late observations, and experiments made with great accuracy by several most worthy and, intelligent men, and the greater part of them have the confirmation arising from more than one observer having assisted in the inquiries. The habits of Beavers are equally well authenticated, and, being more easily observed, are vouched by a greater number of witnesses. These animals, as if to enable them to live and move either on land or water, have two web feet like those of ducks or water dogs, and two like those of land animals. When they wish to construct a dwellingplace, or rather city, for it serves the whole body, they choose a level place with a stream running through it; they dam up the stream so as to make a pond, and per

form the operation as skilfully as we could ourselves. They drive into the ground stakes of five or six feet long in rows, wattling each row with twigs, and puddling or filling the interstices with clay which they ram close in, so as to make the whole solid and water-tight. This dam is likewise shaped on the truest principles ;* for the upper side next the water slopes, and the side below is perpendicular; the base of the dam is 10 or 12 feet thick: the top or narrow part two or three, and it is sometimes as long as 100 feet. The pond being thus formed and secured, they make their houses round the edge of it; they are cells, with vaulted roofs, and upon piles; they are made of stones, earth, and sticks; the walls are two feet thick, and plastered as neatly as if the trowel had been used. Sometimes they have two or three stories for retreating to in case of floods, and they always have two doors, one towards the water, and one towards the land. They keep their winter provisions in stores, and bring them out to use; they make their beds of moss; they live on the bark of trees, gums, and crawfish. Each house holds

from twenty to thirty, and there may be from ten to twenty-five houses in all. Some of their communities are therefore larger than others, but there are seldom fewer than two or three hundred inhabitants. In working they all bear their shares: some gnaw the trees and branches with their teeth to form stakes and beams; others roll the pieces to the water; others diving make holes with their

* If the base is 12, and the top 3 feet thick, and the height 6 feet, the face must be the side of a right-angled triangle, whose height is 8 feet. This would be the exact proportion which there ought to be, upon mathematical principles, to give the greatest resistance possible to the water in its tendency to turn the dam round, provided the materials of which it is made were lighter than water in the proportion of 44 to 100. But the materials are probably more than twice as heavy as water, and the form of so flat a dike is taken, in all likelihood, in order to guard against a more imminent danger,-that of the dam being carried away by being shoved forwards. We cannot calculate what the proportions are which give the greatest possible resistance to this tendency, without knowing the tenacity of the materials, as well as their specific gravity. It may very probably be found that the construction is such as to secure the most completely against the two pressures at the same time.

teeth to place the piles in; others collect and carry stones and clay; others beat and mix the mortar; and others carry it on their broad tails, and with these beat it and plaster it. Some superintend the rest, and make signals by sharp strokes with the tail, which are carefully attended to; the beavers hastening to the place where they are wanted to work, or to repair any hole made by the water, or to defend themselves or make their escape, when attacked by an enemy.

The fitness of different animals, by their bodily structure, to the circumstances in which they are found, presents an endless subject of curious inquiry and pleasing contemplation. Thus, the Camel which lives in sandy deserts has broad spreading hoofs to support him on the loose soil; and an apparatus in his body by which water is kept for many days, to be used when no moisture can be had. As this would be useless in the neighborhood of streams or wells, and as it would be equally so in the desert, where no water is to be found, there can be no doubt that it is intended to assist in journeying across the sands from one watered spot to another. There is a singular and beautiful provision made in this animal's foot, for enabling it to sustain the fatigues of journeys under the pressure of its great weight. Beside the yielding of the bones and ligaments, or bindings, which gives elasticity to the foot of the deer and other animals, there is in the camel's foot, between the horny sole and the bones, a cushion, like a ball, of soft matter, almost fluid, but in which there is a mass of threads extremely elastic, interwoven with the pulpy substance. The cushion thus easily changes its shape when pressed, yet it has such an elastic spring, that the bones of the foot press on it uninjured by the heavy body which they support, and this huge animal steps as softly as a cat.

Nor need we flee to the desert in order to witness an example of skilful structure in the foot: the Horse's limbs display it strikingly. The bones of the foot are not placed directly under the weight; if they were in an upright position, they would make a firm pillar, and every motion

would cause a shock. They are placed slanting or oblique, and tied together by an elastic binding on their lower surfaces, so as to form springs as exact as those which we make of leather or steel for carriages. Then the flatness

of the hoof which stretches out on each side, and the frog coming down in the middle between the quarters, adds greatly to the elasticity of the machine. Ignorant of this, ill-informed farriers nail the shoe too far back, fixing the quarters, and causing permanent contraction-so that the contracted hoof loses its elasticity; every step is a shock; inflammation and lameness ensue.

The Rein-deer inhabits a country covered with snow the greater part of the year. Observe how admirably its hoof is formed for going over that cold and light substance, without sinking in it, or being frozen. The under side is covered entirely with hair, of a warm and close texture; and the hoof, altogether, is very broad, acting exactly like the snow-shoes which men have constructed for giving them a larger space to stand on than their feet, and thus to avoid sinking. Moreover, the deer spreads the hoof as wide as possible when it touches the ground; but, as this breadth would be inconvenient in the air, by occasioning a greater resistance while he is moving along, no sooner does he lift the hoof than the two parts into which it is cloven fall together, and so lessen the surface exposed to the air, just as we may recollect the birds doing with their bodies and wings. The shape and structure of the hoof is also well adapted to scrape away the snow, and enable the animal to get at the particular kind of moss (or lichen) on which he feeds. This plant, unlike others, is in its full growth during the winter season; and the rein-deer, accordingly, thrives from its abundance, notwithstanding the unfavourable effects of extreme cold upon the animal sys

tem.

There are some insects, of which the males have wings, and the females are grubs or worms. Of these, the Glowworm is the most remarkable: it is the female, and the male is a fly, which would be unable to find her out, creep