3o 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE 



"FOR ALL THE WORLD LIKE A MINIATURE VOLCANO IN A SETTING OF GIANT TREES.' 



examples, all of which tend to make 

 one wonder why these industrious in- 

 habitants of our world have not been 

 credited with intelligence before. These 

 Aphids of which I have just spoken, 

 are the young" of certain small insects 

 commonly known as plant lice. They 

 are sap-draining creatures and are of- 

 ten found upon the stems and leaves 

 of various plants, shrubs and trees 

 sometimes in great numbers. The 

 ants take great care of these -little 

 "Cattle" and may often be seen extract- 

 ing the sweet fluid from their bodies 

 by gently squeezing their sides ! Not 

 only do they use them through the 

 summer, but when the cold weather 

 arrives, the ants carry their Aphids 

 into their underground nests, where 

 they place them upon the roots of 

 plants, thus securing a supply of nec- 

 tar through the winter! 



Yet these very insects who, perhaps, 

 by their marvelous actions, have held 

 our rapt attention, or caused us to ex- 

 claim in astonishment, may display, 

 but a moment later, such an unpardon- 

 able lack of resource that we are at 

 loss to understand and our belief in in- 

 telligence may be somewhat shaken. 

 But perhaps not permanently, for it 

 is true that among nearly every large 

 colony of these insects, one will find 

 an occasional example wherein an in- 

 dividual seems really to leave the 



beaten track of instinct in which its 

 forefathers have travelled unwittingly 

 for hundreds and hundreds of years. 



Yonder near the forest's edge, a neg- 

 lected, grass-grown wood path winds 

 its silent way into the sombre, shaded 

 depths of the virgin growth. In the 

 center of the path stands a mound of 

 dry, brown earth, protected from the 

 elements by the thick, dark foliage 

 above. The mound is nearly three 

 feet in diameter and stands some eigh- 

 teen inches in height ; for all the world 

 like a miniature volcano in a setting of 

 giant trees. Indeed even the lava 

 seems to be there, pouring downward 

 in an ever changing stream, as if im- 

 patient to destroy some tiny city at 

 the mountains base. But this is not 

 the eruption of a fairy Vesuvius, which 

 we are witnessing, nor is it even an 

 unusual sight, but simply a great 

 thriving insect city wherein live some 

 forty-thousand mound ants, whose 

 never ceasing labors cause their whole 

 metropolis to writhe, like streams of 

 moulten lava ! 



Let us go closer to the mound, that 



we may try an experiment upon a 

 single member of this great colony of 

 insects who is laboriously endeavoring 

 to drag the remains of a field cricket, 

 man}- times its own size, to the insect 

 city, some twenty feet distant. 



