THE CLEVER FAMILY OF ANTS 



Ants are everywhere in the jungle and many 

 are very big. They explore a new building quickly 

 and use such parts as suit them quite as if it were 

 their own property. Ants with long, powerful 

 jaws like scythes run over the window screens and 

 catch flies. Tiny ones climb on the table in 

 search of crumbs and sugar. When I picked up 

 an old tent cover or a coat thrown down and left 

 in one corner of the shack for a few days, I was 

 not at all surprised to find half -inch ants carry- 

 ing away their white, grublike babies into dark 

 crevices. 



The life of any ant colony is wonderful to 

 watch, whether it is in your own back yard or 

 on Barro Colorado Island, but many of the most 

 interesting and easily seen activities of the ants 

 never happen outside the warm tropical countries. 

 Ants, like men, are to be found all over the world, 

 but warm climates suit the ants best, though men 

 thrive better in cooler countries. One reason why 

 ants are more active in warm countries is that 

 their bodies are always the same temperature as 

 the place in which they live. In the north they 

 run around easily in the summer, but in the 

 winter they must stay in their nests, cold as the 

 ground itself and so stiff that they cannot move. 



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