. EGGS. BABIES. 25 



others make them eat solid food off a table made of their 

 own bodies, and some feed both ways. But the first babies 

 of a new colony must be fed liquid food from the mouth 

 of the queen, as she has no other kind to give them. 



DOROTHY. How does the baby get rid of its tough 

 skin? 



ANT. Sheds it, and the old poke goes to the bottom if 

 the baby spins a cocoon. 



DOROTHY. Then the babies of some kinds of ants spin 

 cocoons around themselves? I don't see how they can. 



ANT. "The nurses bury the baby in soft earth. It 

 wriggles around until it is in a little cell. Then it lines 

 the wall with silken thread and finishes the cocoon from 

 the inside." 



DOROTHY. I didn't know a baby could work. 



ANT. Oh, yes. Some babies use their cocoon silk to 

 bind leaves together with, to make a home for the colony. 



DOROTHY. Are your babies much bother? 



ANT. The ventilation, temperature and moisture are 

 always changing in the nest, so we have to keep the babies, 

 other children and the eggs on the move like a shuttle. 



DOROTHY. I have seen you carry out the dead bodies 

 of half a dozen babies a distance of six to twenty feet. 

 What's the idea? 



ANT. What would you expect us to do with them? 



DOROTHY. Would I find babies at your house just 

 once a year? 



ANT. You would find them at any time in southern 

 California except a very few months in winter, and you 

 might find a few even then. 



DOROTHY. Then I'd think you'd get the old ones and 

 the new ones all mixed up. 



ANT. The nurses assort the babies and eggs, and place 



