NATURE'S CRAFTSMEN 



in artificial formicaries alone. Therein one may watch 

 the courtiers surrounding the queen in a circle, attending 

 her during all her movements. The circle never ceases 

 to close around her as she passes from place to place. 



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A QUEEN ANT AND HER CIRCLE OF ATTENDANTS 



Drawn from a sketch made from a scene in an artificial ant nest 



Sometimes the queen, falling into a fit of stubborimess, 

 will attempt a course different from that which her court 

 prescribes. Then one attendant gently nips a leg and 

 gives it a little push ; another closes the mandibles upon 

 the body and gives it a slight pinch; a third tenderly 

 seizes a quivering antenna and draws it to this side or 

 that. The whole body-guard meanwhile closes around 

 the queen, and by pushing her and obstructing her path 

 diverts her course, or quite turns her around, her huge 

 body, several times as large as a worker's, moving some- 

 times readily, sometimes with sullen resistance. Thus 



10 



