46 ANTS AND CHILDREN OF THE GARDEN 



KENNETH. That ant hardly ever carries anything in 

 its jaws, but I saw one take a fly home today. 



ANT. It generally gets liquid food, swallows it, and 

 takes it home in its abdomen (craw). Some ants have a 

 tube through each jaw or a groove along the side, through 

 which they suck fluids. 



ALBERT. Yours often carry in parts of the Big ant, but 

 pretend not to take the whole body into the house. I'm 

 certain you use this ant for food. 



ANT. Pretend how? 



ALBERT. The body is carried clear up to the door and 

 then back a few inches and left. 



ANT. We first go clear up to the door so we will know 

 just where we are and can then leave the bodies right 

 where we want them. Flesh moulds in our damp house 

 and keeps better outside. Does man ever dry meat in the 

 sun or does he dry it in the cellar? 



CECIL. Maybe you leave them outside as scarecrows, 

 or so other animals will eat them instead of you. When I 

 left some of them at your very door, you carried them 

 back one to three inches. 



ALBERT. I see you often touch noses with the friendty 

 Big ant, but you both keep your feelers well laid back 

 against your heads. 



KENNETH. I carried one of these ants in a bottle and 

 let it out by the door of a colony like our ants. A hundred 

 of them surrounded it and wouldn't let it go. They all 

 got into a fight. The stranger was getting the worst of it 

 because its feelers got caught in the coil of a filaree seed. 



FLORENCE. Why didn't you help the Big ant? 



KENNETH. I picked it up and removed the trap. It 

 then grabbed one of the other ants, held it a while, 

 dropped it unharmed, and escaped. 



