134 ANTS AND CHILDREN OF THE GARDEN 



CECIL. One of your ants found the body of a queen 

 sixty feet from home. I tried to take it away from her, 

 and pulled the body in two. She took her half on home 

 and I delivered mine. 



ALBERT. I saw a queer thing this morning. An ant 

 brought out a wingless queen by the leg. I carried her 

 back to the door. She turned and went up the trail 

 twenty-five feet, meeting many workers. One of them 

 caught her by the leg and held her a while. Then she 

 went on to where Kenneth was. 



KENNETH. I had a queen treed on a little stick eight 

 inches high. One of our ants was holding her by the leg. 

 I laid them both down on the trail. 



ALBERT. Yes, and by that time my queen had come 

 up and tackled yours. Mine soon got yours by one leg and 

 your worker still held onto another leg. So your queen 

 was in a bad fix. 



KENNETH. Of course, that wasn't fair, so I pried the 

 jaws of the worker loose and then the jaws of your queen. 

 Both queens then started off searching under stones, going 

 into holes, and so on, as if trying to find a good place to 

 start a new home. Both were fine looking and had good 

 teeth. 



ALBERT. It looked like my wingless queen was forced 

 away from home. You will notice that the queens fought 

 each other. Sometimes two queens will go into partnership 

 and build a new home together, it is said. 



CECIL. With a few kinds of ants the kings have no 

 wings, and with still fewer, the queens have none. 



ANT. Any colony of ants does not have the same 

 number of kings and queens. Many of one and few of 

 the other is the rule. In the same neighborhood the kings 



