Page:Philosophical Transactions - Volume 002.djvu/27

 be hot, when for the most part they are found on the South-side of the Bank: that towards Seven or Eight at Night, if it be cool, or likely to rain, you may dig a foot deep before you can finde them.

They know all the sorts of their Young so well, that you cannot deceive them, though you may with fine Sugar, Salt, or the Crums of very white stale Bread, scatter'd in the Mould, where their first true Eggs are (as I call them) be mistaken your self, yet the Ants will not, nor touch a bit of what is not their own Off-spring.

13. I cannot pass by the Use of Ants in feeding young Pheasants and Partridges, they being the principal Food of these Birds, both Wilde and tamed, for several weeks, as is well known to all that are versed in breeding them up. And a chief reason, why many finde it so nice a thing to breed up the said Birds, is, that either they give them too sparingly of this Food, or let them fast too long, not knowing, that as soon 'tis day-light, they will seek it for their Breakfast, and if they want it, will in a few hours be faint and weak, and, some grow so chill for want of that supply of Nourishment, that it is no easie matter to recover them.

14. But (to add this by the by) Though these Insects be so good a Food to these Birds, whilest very young, yet when by ill ordering of those that should keep them sweet, and often shift their water, or by ill Dyet, as molly Corn, &c. they grow sick; then Ants will not always recover them, though you give them never so many: And I have been forced to make use of other Insects to cure them, to wit of Millepedes and Earwigs, either of which will do good, but both together, better, given in a good quantity, two or three times, at least, a day; but then those other things must be observed too, of keeping their House clean, and giving them sweet Corn, and shifting their water twice a day, keeping them within, till the Dew be from the ground, letting them bask in Sand, partly in the Sun, the place a little shaded, and putting them up in a warm house before Sun-set.

Which particularly thought not amiss to add for those that delight in breeding up Pheasants and Partridges, my self having lost many of both sorts, till I learned that Vertue of those Insects; after which, seldom any of them, by me intended to be bred up, have, died. An