NATURE'S CRAFTSMEN 



fortunate comrade and greedily lapped the sweets from 

 the honey-moistened spot. It was a pitiful sight, and 

 noted to the disparagement of the ants, until the ob- 

 server remembered that human beings have displayed 



HONEY-ANT WORKERS OBTAINING HONEY FROM A HONEY-BEARER 



equal greed and ignoble self - gratification amid their 

 country's wreck. 



Over against this one may put a fact apparently 

 more to the credit of our Melligers. From time to time 

 the rotunds dietl in their artificial nosts. The bodies 

 hung to their perch for days ere the death-grip relaxed 

 and they fell. Sometimes the attendant workers failed 

 to note the change for a day or more, and caressed and 

 cleansed them with wonted care. When they perceived 

 the truth, and set about to remove the body, the abdo- 

 men was first severed from the thorax. Then the parts 



106 



