''SERMONS IN"— ANTS. 333 



tural Ant of Texas, oftener called by the people of that 

 State the ' Stinging Ant,' because its sting is as severe 

 as a hornet's. They are cutting down a blade of grass. 

 One has laid his sharp jaws at the very root of the 

 plant, while the other appears to be swaying down the 

 leaf in order to increase the effect of the cut. If this 

 is done on purpose, as it seemed to me when I drew it, 

 the ants are working on the same principle that you do 

 when in early autumn you go out with a hatchet to 

 clear away the rank growth of vines along the roadside 

 and fences. 



" The next picture will show you the olyect which 

 these little workers have in view. (Fig. 107.) They are 

 making a clearing, as I have seen pioneers do in Westemi 

 States when they entered the great forest and began to 

 hew down the trees. Many years ago all this beautiful 

 country around us was covered with a dense forest, and 

 when our forefathers came they chopped away the 

 trees and made clearings for their houses and fields. 

 Now, our Agricultural Ants like to have a clear space 

 or yard around their doors, and here they are cutting 

 down the "trees," as these grass stalks must seem to 

 them. You notice that these clearings differ in shape 

 from our yards and fields, for they are circles or elipses, 

 and are always made as you see them here. It is sur- 

 prising to note what vigor the little pioneers have in 

 keeping their yards clean. The weeds and grasses grow 

 very rank in the rich soil and warm sun of Texas, and 

 sometimes when pushing my way through them I have 

 come across these circular clearings surrounded on all 



