THIRD BATTLE .WITH EYELESS ROBBERS iM:J 



hours, and on the other side of that pole just six weeks, 

 seven months ago. 



DOROTHY. Well, say. When our ants got moved 

 hack, did they carry out any scalded Robbers? Did your 

 boiling water do any good? 



KENNETH. Yes, but they were so mixed up with mud 

 that I quit when I had counted 300 dead. Maybe some 

 escaped through earth cracks. There must have been earth 

 cracks, for the nest wouldn't have held eight gallons of 

 water. I guess they lost more ants than ours did, after all. 

 You know they lost 900 in the second battle with our ants 

 and 40 in the first, and we know of 348 this time, 1,248 in 

 all. Not so bad. 



FLORENCE. I suppose ants are like boys when in bat- 

 tle or in trouble always have a leader, but nobody knows 

 how or why. 



CECIL. They act more like each ant is a leader and 

 understands the whole game. No particular ones lead 

 different ones lead. For some purposes, scouts lead. They 

 say that the robbers send out scouts before attacking in 

 battle and in that case the scouts would lead. 



DOROTHY. How about the seeds that the ants carried 

 back to the wet nest? Did they sprout? 



ALBERT. Yes, hard luck again. Most of the salt-grass 

 and star thistle sprouted and. have been thrown out on the 

 rubbish heap. By carrying the oats out into the sun every 

 day and back into the house every night, the ants are 

 saving most of it. The pigeons haven't learned about it 

 yet. 



DOROTHY. A few weeks ago some of the grain sprout- 

 ed. Four pigeons found that our ants were carrying it out 



