280 POPULAR SCRIPTURE ZOOLOGY.

exertions of each individual for the benefit of the commn-
nity; and of wisdom, in the co-operation of numbers in a
good and useful object: all these qualities show the value
of the injunction “Go to the ant, thou sluggard, consider
her ways and be wise.”

The British species might be cited as sufficient examples,
but those of Asia and Africa afford more wonderful proofs
of persevering energy in rearing buildings, compared to
_ which (when the relative size of the architect is considered),
our most stupendous structures sink into insignificance.
The mason ant constructs an earthern hillock, the interior
of which exhibits labyrinths, lodges, vaults, and galleries,
many of the nests having twenty stories above, and as many
below ground, thus providing the inhabitants with warm or
cool apartmenta, according to the weather.

The carpenter ants form their chambers and galleries in
the trunks of trees; other species construct nests on the
branches, varying in shape and dimensions; but the build-
ings erected by the Termites, or white ants of tropical cli-
mates, surpass all others in size and architectural wonders.
These edifices are more than five hundred times the height
of the builders, so that if our houses were built in the same
proportion, they would be twelve or fourteen times the