182 ANTS AND CHILDREN OF THE GARDEN 



ANT. Because the rooms around the door keep caving 

 in. Notice the deep funnels around the door of old aban- 

 doned nests. 



KENNETH. It's queer that the wind doesn't blow away 

 the coarse chaff that you close the door with. It seems 

 to hold it in. 



CECIL. Why, when the ants have the kind of door they 

 want, the wind will even hold feathers in it. The eddy 

 formed by the funnel seems to be the cause. 



KENNETH. As your southwest wall crumbles off, you 

 follow it up with a new door, closing the old one with 

 pebbles, and sticks and clods. 



ANT. Yes. The old covered stairway then makes a 

 nice ventilated room for eggs, babies and queens. 



KENNETH. That southwest wall makes a good shade 

 for your guards in the hot afternoons. 



CECIL. I have seen you close your door with chaff, 

 sticks, stones, clods, dirt, and insect skeletons, but with 

 chaff generally. 



ANT. We close it to keep the heat or cold out and 

 sometimes to keep enemies out. See this little pile of 

 gravel? That's to close the door with if we should need it. 

 You know we might happen to be out of chaff. 



ALBERT. How in the world can you mine this red 

 hardpan ? 



ANT. Below the surface it stays damp a long time, but 

 we could mine it even if it was almost as hard as sand- 

 stone by moistening it with saliva. That's the way the 

 mason wasp does. You know that Hannibal softened the 

 Alps with vinegar. 



KENNETH. You removed about six square inches of 

 crust that formed when I sprinkled your yard. 



ANT. We could have a solid floor to our funnel if we 



