WATER RAIN 195 



ANT. Sometimes water will wet an ant and sometimes 

 it won't. When it does it runs up her legs and pulls her 

 in. If the water dries and her feet stick to the dish, she 

 may fall in. 



KENNETH. I placed a little sweetened water in a flat 

 dish. The next morning two dead ants were dried to the 

 bottom. 



CECIL. Why do our ants prefer dry sugar to sugar 

 water ? 



KENNETH. I don't know, unless it is safer for them to 

 do their own moistening with their saliva. 



CECIL. I tried out the Honey ants, and they preferred 

 the sugar water. 



KENNETH. I set a can lid of water by the door. Some 

 ants drank from the edge. When the rim was full of ants 

 they held on to each other and floated on the water. The 

 wind blew bunches across to the other shore, and some 

 skated across alone. Only one ant sank in half an hour. 

 They seemed to be having a great time at the swimming 

 pool. 



FLORENCE. I put some water in a tin scoop, set it 

 slanting, and the first fifty ants that tried to drink slid in 

 and couldn't get out. 



KENNETH. One at a time I teased a dozen ants with 

 a straw until they took hold of it with their jaws, and then 

 I baptized them. They all came to the top except one. 



ALBERT. When I want to float, I have to tie bladders, 

 or water-wings, under my fins. 



KENNETH. So do the ants. An ant forces air out of 

 the tubes of its body. These bubbles, or bladders, stick to 

 the ant and lift it to the top of the water. I counted from 

 one to five bladders on each of the eleven ants that arose 

 to the surface and none on the other ant, 



