Ants 



are so varied that we can only mention a few of the more 

 interesting ; the castes so numerous that only those with 

 which we are immediately concerned will be described ; 

 the ways of the workers well, volumes have been filled 

 with their doings. In certain respects all ants are alike. 

 They are all exceedingly cleanly. It is hardly surprising 

 that large quantities of waste matter, excrement, cast 

 skins and the like, should be found in the nests, or would 

 be were the ants not so tidy. Every scrap of rubbish is 

 carefully removed by the workers, either to some place 

 outside the nest or to a deserted gallery within it. Veri- 

 table little kitchen middens are these rubbish-heaps. 

 Any evil-smelling substance which finds its way into the 

 nest and cannot be removed is dealt with equally promptly. 

 The ants simply throw little pellets of earth upon the 

 offending object till it is buried. 



All ants, with the exception of some flesh-eating 

 species, have a common failing they are all partial to 

 sweet things. In this connection there is nothing more 

 remarkable in the ant world than the " honey pots " of a 

 small American ant. The nest of this ant is never very 

 large, and is always situated in the vicinity of shin oak 

 thickets, for a reason which will be apparent in a moment. 

 Externally, the home of the honey-ant is a low, gravel- 

 covered mound, about six inches in diameter by three 

 inches in height. Internally, it contains certain special 

 chambers with dome-shaped roofs, to the rough surfaces 

 of which certain peculiarly contrived individuals cling. 



The ordinary workers display little activity by day, 

 but at night they issue from their nests in thousands and 

 ascend the oak-trees. Now the shin oak is especially 

 liable to the attacks of gall insects, and there is a certain 

 gall which gives off a sugary substance called honey-dew. 

 It is for the honey on these galls, together with the sweet 

 exudations of green-fly and scale insects living on the 

 oaks, that the nightly forays of the ants are made. The 

 worker ants lick up all the honey-dew they can find and 



