prussiate of potash which is sometimes 

 used in photography. Another name 

 for it is cyanide of potassium. He says, 

 " How astonished was I when I saw the 

 whole surface of the heap strewn with 

 dead ants like a battle-field. The 

 piece of cyanide, however, had totally 

 disappeared. More than one-half of the 

 community had met death in this des 

 perate struggle, but still the death- 

 defying courage of the heroic little 

 creatures had succeeded in removing 

 the fatal poison, the touch of which 

 must have been just as disagreeable to 

 them as it was dangerous. Recklessly 

 neglecting their own safety, they had 

 carried it off little by little, covering 

 every step with a corpse. Once re 

 moved from the heap, the poison had 

 been well covered with leaves and 

 pieces of wood, and thus prevented 

 from doing further damage. The hero 

 ism of these insects, which far sur 

 passes what any other creature, includ 

 ing even man, has ever shown in the 

 way of self-sacrifice and loyalty, had 

 made such an impression on me that I 

 gave up my campaign, and henceforth 

 I bore with many an outrage from my 

 neighbors rather than destroy the 

 valiant beings whose courage I had not 

 been able to crush." In the extreme 

 southwest of the United States are 

 colonies of ants that have a peculiar 

 custom of setting apart some of their 

 number to give up their lives for their 

 fellows in a strange way. They feed 

 upon honey until they are unable to 

 walk. Then their fellows take the 

 greatest care of them and feed them 

 so their bodies are distended enor 

 mously. A number of these ants when 

 fed so highly look very much like a 

 bunch of little grapes, they are so 



round and translucent. When food is 

 scarce later the other ants come to 

 their heavy mates and eat them with 

 great relish. 



AIR. The wear and tear in our 

 bodies is replaced by new material 

 carried to the spot by the blood. The 

 heart forces the blood out along the 

 arteries in a bright red current. It 

 comes back blackened with the refuse 

 material. It passes to the lungs, where 

 it comes into contact with the air we 

 breathe. It does not quite touch the 

 air, but is acted upon by the air through 

 very thin partitions much as the cash 

 business is carried on in some houses 

 and banks with the cashiers all placed 

 behind screens, where they may be 

 seen and talked to but not reached. 

 Purified in the lungs by contact with 

 fresh air, the blood goes back to con 

 tinue the good work of making the 

 body sound. But if the air has been 

 used before by someone in breathing 

 it has become bad and the blood does 

 not get the benefit from contact with 

 it in the lungs that nature intended. 

 Ordinarily a man breathes in about 

 four thousand gallons of air in a day 

 if he is taking things easily, but when 

 he is hard at mental or physical work 

 he needs much more than this. Air 

 that has been hurt by being breathed 

 is restored to the right condition by 

 the leaves of trees and plants. In 

 large cities where people are crowded 

 together there is a lack of good air. 

 But nature is continually rushing the 

 air about so that new may take the 

 place of what has been used, rain 

 washes it out, and the storm brings in 

 from the country just the kind of air 

 the city man needs in his lungs. 



BIRD LIFE IN INDIA. 



IN INDIA bird-life abounds every 

 where absolutely unmolested, and 

 the birds are as tame as the fowls 

 in a poultry yard. Ring-doves, 

 minas, hoopoes, jays and parrots hardly 

 trouble themselves to hop out of the 

 way of the heavy bull-carts, and every 



wayside pond and lake is alive with 

 ducks, geese, pelicans, and flamingoes 

 and waders of every size and sort, from 

 dainty beauties, the size of pigeons, up 

 to the great unwieldly cranes and ad 

 jutants, five feet high. 



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