NESTING ARCHITECTURE 



impressed by the commune's partial wrecking as to 

 think that nothing serious had happened? Was this 

 an instinctive act of self-protection, for the present 

 exigency alone, a sort of bivouac and makeshift, like 

 the temporary camps around a despoiled city? Would 

 these adventurers persist, and build up a permanent seat, 

 or soon return to the old quarters? Was this a proof of 

 superior wisdom, the act of keen opportunists quickly 

 adapting themselves to strange conditions, or of faculties 

 far more limited than we have been wont to credit to 

 ants? Was it simply the result of a physical necessity 

 to be doing, an uncontrollable impulse finding vent in 

 action ? 



But here we stand, vainly speculating and philoso- 

 phizing, while the field of observation just before us is 

 alive with busy insects who have much to show us. Let 

 us go back to the practical and objective. We have 

 seen something of the way in which the citizens of an 

 ant community labor in mass on their public buildings 

 and roads. The manner of the individual now requires 

 to be noted. And here comes a worker-minor who will 

 answer our quest. She has strolled along over the 

 irregular surface of the old foundation of her home, 

 feeling with her antenrue here and there without any 

 visible purpose. At last she pauses. She seems to be 

 reflecting upon the ruin around her and without apparent 

 emotion. Ah ! if we could but command the mediation 

 of some fairy interpreter of her thoughts ! 



But see! Suddenly she leaps upon a pile of earth- 

 crumbs, and, seizing one in her jaws, lays it down at a 

 little distance with a sharp pat. Another and an- 

 other and many others follow, all gathered and placed 

 with amazing activity. The little body, from the tips 



47 



