of a small, fresh hillock, one in which the thatching process is
going on, is taken off, a broad cylindrical shaft is disclosed at
a depth of about two feet from the surface. If this is probed
with a stick, which may be done to the extent of three or four
feet without touching bottom, a small number of colossal fellows
(Fig. 3) will slowly begin to make their way up the smooth sides
of the mine. Their heads are of the same size as those of the
class Fig. 2, but the front is clothed with hairs, instead of
being polished, and they have in the middle of the forehead a
twin, ocellus, or simple eye, of quite different structure from
the ordinary compound eyes, on the sides of the head. This
frontal eye is totally wanting in the other workers, and is not
known in any other kind of ant. The apparition of these strange
creatures from the cavernous depths of the mine reminded me, when
I first observed them, of the Cyclopes of Homeric fable. They
were not very pugnacious, as I feared they would be, and I had no
difficulty in securing a few with my fingers. I never saw them
under any other circumstances than those here related, and what
their special functions may be I cannot divine.

The whole arrangement of a Formicarium, or ant-colony, and all
the varied activity of ant-life, are directed to one main
purpose--the perpetuation and dissemination of the species. Most
of the labour which we see performed by the workers has for its
end the sustenance and welfare of the young brood, which are
helpless grubs. The true females are incapable of attending to
the wants of their offspring; and it is on the poor sterile
workers, who are denied all the other pleasures of maternity,
that the entire care devolves. The workers are also the chief
agents in carrying out the different migrations of the colonies,