ENTOMOLOGY. 



215 



interested more in minerals. Huh ! was 

 the reply, some men would collect any- 

 thing'. Of course I felt properly abased. 

 J thought his sense of courtesy posi- 

 tively unique, I hope it is. 



One day I was looking over the col- 

 lections of an old gentleman who had 

 been an instructor in one of the English 

 universities. He had a great many in- 

 teresting things. Among them large 

 crystals of quartz, from Brazil, enclos- 

 ing clay; mud crystals he called them. 



A gift he told us from Louis Agassiz. 

 It was an extensive and a fine collection 

 right through the list, but the bright 

 particular star was a beautiful suite of 

 English Fluors, mostly in shapely 

 groups of blue purple, greens and yel- 

 lows. Oh me! Oh my! After we had 

 exhausted our stock of superlatives he 

 unfolded his tale of woe. "Yes," he 

 said, "they are beautiful, I have never 

 seen better ; but people tell me they are 

 only good to shy at cats." 



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HI ENTOMOLOGY 



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An Ant's Nest that is Easy to Make. 



BY ELLIOT R. DOWNING, PH. D., THE 



NORTHERN STATE NORMAL SCHOOL, 



MARQUETTE, MICH. 



"Go to the ant, thou sluggard ; con- 

 sider her ways, and be wise : which 

 having no guide, overseer, or ruler, 

 provideth her meat in the summer, and 

 gathereth her food in the harvest." 



Ever since the days of King Solo- 

 mon, at least, the ant has been prover- 

 bial for her interesting ways, a fit ob- 

 ject for study and even worthy of em- 

 ulation. The nest described here is 

 easy to make and yet is so well adapt- 

 ed to its purpose that even children 

 may keep a colony of ants in it, ob- 

 serving them constantly, for many 

 months. It has been so successful an 

 aid to the study of this interesting 

 little animal in my nature study classes 

 that I am induced to write about it, in 

 the hopes that others, who do not 

 know of it, may add to their pleasure. 

 The idea is not original with me ; I 

 learned the method of construction 

 and care of the inmates from Miss A. 

 M. Eielde and afterwards saw several 

 of her articles ; others may not have 

 been as fortunate, so the idea is passed 

 on. 



Take a piece of glass about five by 

 ten inches as the foundation for the 



nest ; the exact size is immaterial, but 

 this is convenient for a two chambered 

 nest. Now cut some strips of glass a 

 half inch wide ; four of them, ten inches 

 long, four, three and a half inches and 

 two four inches in length. You can 

 buy a glass cutter at the store for ten 

 cents or so and the clerk will show 

 you how to use it or he will cut the 

 strips for you. With china cement at- 

 tach the long strips close to the long 

 edges of the foundation glass, putting 

 one strip on top of the other, so as to 

 make the wall two thicknesses of the 

 glass high. In a similar way, cement 

 the two four inch strips on at one end 

 and two of the shorter pieces at the other 

 end so as to leave an entrance door- 

 way here. (See the figures.) Fasten 

 the other two short pieces half way 

 between the ends so as to divide the 

 nest into. two rooms. You will want, 

 also, two glasses five inches square 

 to serve as roofs for the chambers and 

 two pieces of card board of the same 

 size. 



When the cement of the walls is 

 dry, you must bind the edges of the 

 nest with black cloth to keep out the 

 light. Cut a couple of strips of the 

 cloth, say black cambric, ten inches 

 long and an inch and a half wide. 

 Smear one side of each with LePage's 



