^oS THE WORLD'S LUMBER ROOM. 



But then how are the ants to know when a dead body is 

 wanted and when not, since their own opinion clearly is that 

 the dead should never be allowed to remain among the 

 living ? 



They alone of all animals, so far as is known, are con- 

 stantly in the habit of removing and burying their own dead, 

 and, indeed, have their regular cemeteries ; but, while thus 

 careful of their friends, they suck the juices of strangers and 

 enemies and throw the dry husks together, in some spot 

 away from their nest. Their slaves they likewise bury, but 

 in a place apart, and are seldom known to eat the dead 

 bodies of either slaves or comrades. 



Mrs. Lewis Hutton, of Sydney, gives a most curious 

 account of the funeral customs of some Australian soldier 

 ants. Having killed several ants which had attacked her 

 child, she saw' their friends come and carry them off in 

 procession, each body being followed by ants which she 

 took for mourners. These mourners were then apparently 

 called upon to give their help in filling in the graves, which 

 some did, while six or seven who refused were killed, and 

 buried without honour in a single grave. 



In our climate ants are essentially carnivorous. A 

 company of horse- or hill-ants have been seen dragging away 

 half a dead snake of the size of a goose-quill, and no doubt 

 they do much useful work which escapes notice; but it is 

 in the tropics, where they are omnivorous, that the work 

 they accomplish is best appreciated. 



The " travelling ants " of South America start on their 

 periodical journeys just before the rains set in, and not 

 only clear every bush and low tree in their path of all 



