THE SHEEPFOLD 21 



"To return to my story. If our cows wandered 

 at will in the country, if we were obliged to take 

 troublesome journeys to go and milk them in distant 

 pastures, uncertain whether we should find them or 

 not, it would be hard work for us, and very often 

 impossible. How do we manage then! We keep 

 UK-HI close at hand, in inclosures and in stables. 

 This also is sometimes done by the ants with the 

 plant-lice. To avoid tiresome journeys, sometimes 

 useless, they put their herds in a park. Not all have 

 this admirable foresight, however. Besides, if they 

 had, it would be impossible to construct a park large 

 enough for such innumerable cattle and their pastur- 

 How, for example, could they inclose in walls 

 the willow that we saw this morning with its popula- 

 tion of black lice? It is necessary to have condi- 

 tions that are not beyond the forces available. Given 

 a tuft of grass whose base is covered with a few 

 plant-lice, the park is practicable. 



' Ants that have found a little herd plan how to 

 build a sheepfold, a summer chalet, where the plant- 

 lice can be inclosed, sheltered from the too bright 

 - of the sun. They too will stay at the chalet for 

 some time, so as to have the cows within reach and to 

 milk them at leisure. To this end, they begin by 

 removing a little of the earth at the base of the tuft 

 so as to uncover the upper part of the root. This 

 exposed part forms a sort of natural frame on which 

 the building can rest. Now grains of damp earth are 

 pih-<l up one by one and shaped into a large vault, 

 which rests on the frame of the roots and surrounds 

 stem above the point occupied by the plant-lice. 



