Note 4 — CHAP. VI. OF THE RELATION OF ANTS WITH THE PUCERONS AND GALL INSECTS.

I have often been surprised at the strength, as well as address, occasionally displayed by ants. At the entrance of a nest of Red Ants, I placed a large house-fly; several ants came out from time to time, to examine it. But what was my surprise, to see a solitary ant attempt the removal of so large a body: it caught hold of one of the wings forcibly by its pincers, and exerted all its strength to drag it along. This it did with apparent ease, where the ground was not uneven; but on meeting any obstruction, and finding the dragging system useless, it quitted its post for the opposite station, and overcame the resistance by pushing. In this way it removed the fly to a considerable distance. A difficulty at length presented itself, which I thought insuperable. The ant, however, did not relax in its exertions: after attempting to drag it for some time, it endeavoured to push it forward, going alternately to the several parts of the body. All these efforts were useless. In this emergency it seized the fly in its mouth, and by a sudden jerk lifted it from the ground, and thus overcame the impediment.—“The Mahometans hold, on the relation of Thevenot (as mentioned by Messrs. Kirby and Spence), that one of the animals in Paradise is Solomon’s Ant, which, when all creatures, in obedience to him, brought him presents, dragged before him a locust, and was therefore preferred before all others, because it had brought a creature so much bigger than itself.”—T.