76 ETON NATURE-STUDY 



" helps " (a brown species). The species which are completely de- 

 pendent on their slaves do not occur in this country. Provided with 

 one or two nests, the student may devise a course of observations as 

 to the habits of ants that may last him for years. Much patience 

 and the methodical writing down of what has been seen are 

 necessary, if anything like a trustworthy piece of work is to be 

 accomplished. 



It must not be thought, however, that new discoveries can be 

 made off-hand. Should the possession of an ant's nest rouse a wish 

 to have more than a superficial knowledge of the ways of ants, the 

 student should read what has been done, and there is no book that 

 can be more profitably consulted as an introduction to the study of 

 ant life than the work by Lord Avebury, quoted above. * 



THE INHABITANTS OF ANTS' NESTS 



We should be omitting one very remarkable point in the economy 

 of ants if we were to neglect to say something of the " domesticated 

 animals," "hangers on," and " scavengers," whose abode is either in 

 the near neighbourhood of the ants' nest or actually inside it. 

 Ants, it is well known, visit certain species of green- fly which suck 

 the juices of plants, in order to fetch the sweet exudation from 

 their bodies which has been called "honey-dew." The work of 

 some ants, however, carries them further : they may collect and tend 

 the eggs of their " cows," or keep herds of similar insects which feed 

 on roots in their underground galleries (see figures 194 and 

 195). 



* We might here offer a warning not to feed the yellow ant on the same syrup as is 

 prepared for bees, containing napthol beta. Nothing but honey should be given to this 

 species. 



