222 STRANGE DWELLINGS, 



and timely arrangements for the changing seasons. It is, in 

 short, endowed with skill, ingenuity, and untiring patience, 

 sufficient to enable it successfully to contend with the varying 

 exigencies which it may have to encounter in the life-conflict. 



'When it has selected a situation for its habitation, if on 

 ordinary dry ground, it bores a hole, around which it raises the 

 surface three and sometimes six inches, forming a low circular 

 mound, having a very gentle inclination from the centre to the 

 outer border, which on an average is three or four feet from 

 the entrance. But if the location is chosen on low, flat, wet 

 land, liable to inundation, though the ground may be perfectly 

 dry at the time the ant sets to work, it nevertheless elevates 

 the mound, in the form of a pretty sharp cone, to the height of 

 fifteen to twenty inches or more, and makes the entrance near 

 the summit. Around the mound, in either case, the ant clears 

 the ground of all obstructions, and levels and smooths the 

 surface to the distance of three or four feet from the gate of 

 the city, giving the space the appearance of a handsome pave- 

 ment, as it really is. 



' Within this paved area, not a blade of any green thing is 

 allowed to grow, except a single species of grain-bearing grass. 

 Having planted this crop in a circle around, and two or three 

 feet from the centre of the mound, the insect tends and cul- 

 tivates it with constant care, cutting away all other grasses and 

 weeds that may spring up amongst it, and all around outside 

 the farm-circle to the extent of one or two feet more. The 

 cultivated grass grows luxuriantly, and produces a heavy crop 

 of small, white, flinty seeds, which under the microscope very 

 closely resemble ordinary rice. When ripe, it is carefully 

 harvested and carried by the workers, chaff and all, into the 

 granary cells, where it is divested of the chaff and packed 

 away. The chaff is taken out and thrown beyond the limits of 

 the paved area. 



* During protracted wet weather, it sometimes happens that 

 the provision-stores become damp, and are liable to sprout and 

 spoil. In this case, on the first fine day, the ants bring out 

 the damp and damaged grain, and expose it to the sun till it is 



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