In 1694, during the witch persecutions at Salem, in New England, under the Quakers Increase and Cotton Mather, a dog was strangely afflicted, and was found guilty of having been ridden by a warlock. The dog was hanged. Another dog was accused of afflicting others, who fell into fits the moment it looked upon them; it was also put to death. A Canadian bishop in the same century excommunicated the wood-pigeons; the same expedient was had recourse to against caterpillars by a grand vicar of Pont-du-Château, in Auvergne, as late as the eighteenth century. The absurdity of these trials called forth several treatises during the middle ages. Philip de Beaumanoir in the thirteenth century, in his _Customs of Beauvoisis_, complained of their folly; and in 1606, Cardinal Duperron forbade any exorcism of animals, or the use, without license, of prayers in church for their extermination. A book published in 1459, _De Fascino_, by a Spanish Benedictine monk, Leonard Vair, holds up the practice to ridicule. Eveillon, in his _Traité des Excommunications_, published in 1651, does the same. One curious story more, and we shall give a detailed account of one of these trials. We have taken this from Benoit’s _Histoire de l’Edit de Nantes_ (tom. v. p. 754), and give a translation of the writer’s own words. “The Protestant chapel at La Rochelle was condemned to be demolished in 1685. The _bell_ had a fate sufficiently droll: it was _whipped_, as a punishment for having assisted heretics; it was then buried, and disinterred, in order to represent its new birth in passing into the hands of Catholics.... It was catechised, and had to reply; it was compelled to recant, and promise never again to relapse into sin; it then made ample and honourable recompense. Lastly, it was reconciled, baptized, and given to the parish which bears the name of Saint Bartholomew. But the point of the story is, that when the governor, who had sold it to the parish, asked for payment, the answer made him was, that it had been Huguenot, that it had been _newly converted_, and that consequently it had a right to demand a delay of three years before paying its debts, according to the law passed by the king for the benefit of those recently converted!” We propose now giving the particulars of a remarkable action brought against some ants, towards the commencement of the eighteenth century, for violation of the rights of property. It is related by P. Manoel Bernardes in his _Nova Floresta_ (Lisbóa, 1728), and is quoted by M. Emile Agnel among his _Curiosités Judiciaires et Historiques_; to whom and to the paper of M. Menabréa, entitled “Procès fait aux Animaux,” in the twelfth volume of the _Transactions of the Chambéry Society_, we are indebted for much of our information. Action brought by the Friars Minor of the province of Pridade no Maranhao in Brazil, against the ants of the said territory.