84 TWO CHAPTERS OX ANTS. 



mass, all stuck together, and placed them in 

 the jar with the harvesters. The workers 

 minor immediately surrounded the mass, 

 touching it with their antenna, and then 

 retreated backward, passing their forelegs 

 over the head and antennae, as if the larvae 

 were obnoxious to them. Great commotion 

 ensued, followed by an apparent consulta- 

 tion lasting a few moments; but soon the 

 usual quietness reigned, and most of the 

 ants left the helpless larvae and returned to 

 their mining and to the storing away of 

 seeds or feeding their own young. But two 

 or three had not entirely deserted the young 

 carpenters. Again and again they touched 

 them, and then retreated, cleansing the an- 

 tennae as they moved backward. At last 

 one seized the mass and held it in her man- 

 dibles, standing nearly in an upright posi- 

 tion. Several workers now surrounded her, 

 picked the larvae off, one by one, and carried 

 them below, until all were separated and 

 disposed of. 



But by far the most satisfactory way of 

 studying the ants is in their native haunts 

 on the barrens, where I had ten nests under 

 observation. One of these was so situated 

 that it received the direct, rays of the sun 

 all day, and was protected from north and 



