NATURE'S CRAFTSMEN 



colony had gone do^\Ti for winter-quarters into the deep 

 galleries beneath the surface, as far from the frost limit 

 as possible, and that we had left them there. I was 

 niLstaken. The irruption of the momitain ants did the 

 academy no harm, and the colony was soon extinct. 

 But we had a good illustration of how ants in their 

 natural habitat freeze up in winter and thaw out in 

 spring. 



In the spring we see our Pennsylvania carpenter ants * 

 poking their black heads from beneath the loose bits of 

 bark in yonder oak, and dropping pellets of fresh saw- 

 dust upon the grass beneath. They are making up for 

 their winter inactivity by ferAid energy. Their bodies 

 fairly quiver with excitement as they move. They arc 

 clearing away the winter rubbish from their galleries, 

 chambers, and halls, and are widening their premises 

 for the increase of their community which the season is 

 sure to bring. 



They work rapidly. A heap of yellowish pellets the 

 size of one's hat lies at the foot of the great tnmk; and 

 this would be much enlarged were it permitted to 

 remain. Of course, the -winds and the rains disperse 

 and distribute the particles. But the ants themselves 

 a.ssist in this action. They seem to fancy that the 

 freshly gnawcd-out wood-dust will betray the where- 

 abouts of their home, and so they remove it from 

 the vicinage — an a<*t of natural secret iveness. I have 

 seen a gang of porters at the foot of a tree busily carry- 

 mg the chippings and scattering them throughout the 

 neighboring grass. Meanwhile the workers within the 

 tree were rasping out the chiplets and dumping them 



* Camponotus herculeaneus , subspecies Pennsylranicus. 

 114 



