ABIDING CITIES 203 



if for a ride, while the large ants seem to take 

 little notice of them. They almost seem to be 

 the dogs, or perhaps the cats, of the ants." In 

 yet another case, a wee parasitic kind makes its 

 own small tunnels in and out among those of a 

 much larger species, members of which cannot 

 get at the petty robbers, because they are them- 

 selves too big to enter the minute galleries. The 

 depredators are, therefore, quite safe, and make 

 incursions into the nests of their bigger victims, 

 whose larvae they carry off and devour " as if 

 we had small dwarfs, about eighteen inches long, 

 harbouring in the walls of our houses, and every 

 now and then carrying off some of our children 

 into their horrid dens." 



When once one begins upon these fascinating 

 insects, the difficulty is to know when to stop. 

 But I have said enough, I hope, to suggest to 

 you the extraordinary interest of the study of ant 

 life. Even if observed in the most amateurish 

 way, it affords one opportunities for endless 

 amusing glimpses into the politics of a community 

 full of comic episodes and tragic denouements. 



