LADYBUGS, SPIDERS, ETC. 257 



CECIL. And each kind of gall is made by a different 

 kind of wasp or gnat. She drills a hole in the leaf or stem, 

 deposits her eggs, and the large growth of the plant at this 

 point does the rest. Easy way to get a house built and to 

 get food for the young ones. 



FLORENCE. Yes, but I don't think much of the mother. 

 She never returns to see what becomes of the family. 



ALBERT. Some of the oak balls on these bushes are 

 round and some are three inches long. It was in one of 

 these that a boy found a colony of ants living Carpenters, 

 I would guess. 



FLORENCE. I'd like to know why cats are so fond of 

 catnip. 



CECIL. Maybe for the same reason that some ants are 

 fond of bug cigarettes. One book says that these cigarettes 

 hairs are riot in little pits, and that they may be found on 

 almost any part of certain bugs. 



FLORENCE. We don't know what animals lived with 

 our ants except the little white mites. Something like a 

 tiny locust and another like a tiny cockroach, or some- 

 thing, seemed to live with them, also. Oh, yes and 

 something like tiny spiders, too. 



CECIL. We've often said that what one ant knows in 

 a colony, they all know by a wireless we can't under- 

 stand. But this is about as true of a flock of migrating 

 birds, a school of fish, a hive or swarm of bees, and a 

 march of army worms. But we've seen plenty of instances 

 where our ants didn't all think the same thing when ants 

 disagree, for instance. 



ALBERT. How can a bat in a dark room dodge a wire 

 after it strikes it? fly back and forth through the meshes 

 of a screen without winging itself? 



CECIL. Give it up. By what string is the hawk tied 



