I have said above that, as far as our present knowledge goes, only two out of the 104 species of European ants are possessed of the habit of collecting and storing seed, and it may be reasonably asked how it can have come about, if this is the case, that the ancient authors were so well acquainted with the fact. The explanation is that these writers lived on the shores of the Mediterranean, where these two species--_Atta barbara_ and _structor_--are extremely common objects, both on account of their abundance and their habits. The long trains of harvesters remain exposed to view for hours together, and _structor_ seeks the neighbourhood or even the interior of towns, so that these ants arrest the attention even of the unobservant, and often become familiar as the sparrows. There can be little doubt that these two ants display the same habits throughout all the warmer districts which they inhabit, but whether they do so in Switzerland, Germany, Northern France, and the other colder portions of their range, remains one of the many interesting questions which still await investigation. Mr. F. Smith has recorded the presence of _Atta barbara_ in Palestine, and I have lately obtained some curious evidence which goes to show that harvesting ants not only carried on their operations in times past in that country, but that their seed-stores were on a much larger scale than any I have observed on the Riviera. I am indebted to Dr. F. A. Pratt for the information that mention was made of ants and their stores in the Misna, that codification of the traditionary and unwritten laws of the Jews, which was commenced after the birth of Christ under the presidency of Hillel, and which has at least the merit of serving as a record of a multitude of very ancient customs and observances which, but for it, would probably have long ago been forgotten. Now it so happens that the very first section of the Misna is called _Zeraim_, and has to do with seeds and crops, and I was thus enabled, without any very prolonged search, to light upon one of the passages in question.[114] It occurs in a chapter entitled _De Angulo_ in the Latin version, treating of the _corner_ of the fields bearing crops which should be set aside for the poor, and of the rights of the gleaners, and may be freely rendered as follows: "The granaries of ants (_Formicarum cavernulæ_), which may be found in the midst of a growing crop of corn, shall belong to the owner of the crop; but, if these granaries are found after the reapers have passed, the upper part (of each heap contained in these granaries) shall go to the poor and the lower to the proprietor." And then is added: "The Rabbi Meir is of opinion that the whole should go to the poor, because whenever any doubt arises about a question of gleaning the doubt is to be given in favour of the gleaner."