^S Rcdruff 



had made a note of this dome some time be« 

 fore. It takes a number of such domes to raise 

 a brood of partridges. For this was an ant's 

 nest. The old one stepped on top, looked 

 about a moment, then gave half a dozen vigor. 

 ous rakes with her claws. The friable ant-hill 

 was broken open, and the earthen galleries 

 scattered in ruins down the slope. The ants 

 swarmed out and quarrelled with each other 

 for lack of a better plan. Some ran around the 

 hill with vast energy and little purpose, while a 

 few of the more sensible began to carry away 

 fat white eggs. But the old partridge, coming 

 to the little ones, picked up one of these juicy- 

 looking bags and clucked and dropped it, and 

 picked it up again and again and clucked, then 

 swallowed it. The young ones stood around, 

 then one little yellow fellow, the one that sat on 

 the chip, picked up an ant-egg, dropped it a 

 few times, then yielding to a sudden impulse, 

 swallowed it, and so had learned to eat. With- 

 in twenty minutes even the runt had learned, 

 and a merry time they had scrambling after the 

 delicious eggs as their mother broke open morC 

 ant-galleries, and sent them and their contents 

 rolling down the bank, till every little partridge 

 had so crammed his little crop that he was pos- 

 itively misshapen and could eat no more. 



