THE ARMY ANTS' HOME TOWN 81 



and again through the mandibles; while the last 

 performance was to turn over on their backs and 

 roll from side to side, exactly as a horse or don- 

 key loves to do. 



One ant, I remember, seemed to have some- 

 thing seriously wrong. It sat up on its bent- 

 under abdomen in a most comical fashion, and 

 was the object of solicitude of every passing ant. 

 Sometimes there were thirty in a dense group, 

 pushing and jostling; and, like most of our city 

 crowds, many seemed to stop only long enough 

 to have a moment's morbid sight, or to ask some 

 silly question as to the trouble, then to hurry on. 

 Others remained, and licked and twiddled him 

 with their antenna? for a long time. He w&s 

 in this position for at least twenty minutes. My 

 curiosity was so aroused that I gathered him up 

 in a vial, whereat he became wildly excited and 

 promptly regained full use of his legs and facul- 

 ties. Later, when I examined him under the 

 lens, I could find nothing whatever wrong. 



Off at one side of the general cleaning and 

 reconstruction areas was a pitiful assemblage of 

 cripples which had had enough energy to crawl 

 back, but which did not attempt, or were not 

 allowed, to enter the nest proper. Some had 



