THE PHILADELPHIA ACADEMY. 53 1 



become heated with every day of sunshine, and thus the ants find all 

 the conditions necessary for the rapid development of their pupae. 



Of equal importance is the fact that an abundant supply of food 

 is ready at hand in their hunting-grounds food already slaughtered 

 for tbem so that they are saved the time and trouble of overcoming 

 and destroying their prey. Not only are they certain to secure the 

 caterpillars, worms, and a variety of insects which are crushed by pass- 

 ing feet, but also the crumbs dropped by children, or swept from the 

 houses, as well as the banana- and orange-peel, peach- and cherry- 

 stones, and the like, which often litter the sidewalk. Here, then, is a 

 variety of food to supply their tastes, and, when not otherwise en- 

 gaged, they may be seen tearing off the fruit-fibers from some cherry- 

 stone or apple-core, or tugging away busily at some maimed or crushed 

 insect or caterpillar. In selecting proper places to build their nests, 

 they choose, if possible, those which are neither damp nor liable to 

 inundation. If the sidewalk, they secure a level territory from which 

 the rain runs away as fast as it falls. With all these favorable con- 

 ditions they manage to survive and flourish, despite the frequent chok- 

 ing up of their passage-ways, and the many deaths, by crushing, of 

 their workers. 



Thus it is that what seems to us a very precarious and unfavor- 

 able region in which to live, the ants continue to occupy from year to 

 year, and to increase in numbers. The struggle for existence is well 

 illustrated by this example, and it would be interesting to know just 

 how many footsteps a day they can endure and yet survive. A 

 densely traveled thoroughfare will be found to support but very few 

 ants' nests, and these are upon its borders, while one less traveled, if 

 it is comparatively dry and not heavily shaded by trees, will be found 

 infested with them. 



The mud-wasp which plasters its cells under the roofs of barns, 

 garrets, and sheds in Northern New England, parallels the eaves-swal- 

 low which constructs its mud-nests beneath the eaves of barns. Here 

 the brighter individuals show great judgment in selecting places re- 

 moved from leaks in the roofs. We have observed many remarkable 

 selections of building-sites among these insects, and doubtless numer- 

 ous interesting facts await the patient study of these curious animals. 



THE PHILADELPHIA ACADEMY. 



By J. S. KINGSLEY. 



N a Canadian journal devoted to science there appeared, not long 

 aso, an article entitled " The First and most Profound of Savants," 

 and old Father Adam was intended by this superlative title, for did he 

 not give to every animal a name ? What a pity it is that these Adam. 



I 



