MINING A HOME 190 



CECPL. Well, now I don't know what to think. Maybe 

 the seven that sank were frightened at you and sank on 

 purpose. 



DOROTHY. If the queen can fill her tubes with air just 

 before she takes her flight, why might not other ants do 

 so when, they don't want to sink ? 



CECIL. You see I ducked the ants in my experiment. 



DOROTHY. The safest way to water the ants is to pour 

 some water on the ground, as they will fall into a dish at 

 least, ours do. 



Mining a Home. 

 CECIL. At last, January 12, we have had the first good 



Harvester Carrying a Pellet of Earth, or Mud Ball. 



rain of the season. It lias rained a half inch. The Acro- 

 bats and Longlegs enjoyed the shower as well as our ants 

 did. But only about seventy-five of ours were out at 

 midnight. 



KENNETH. Yes, but look at them this morning. Al- 

 though they had done no mining in their new home, we 

 thought they had closed up their doors a week ago and 

 quit work for the winter, but see these 500 miners carrying 

 out earth pellets. Probably there are that many more 



