How Animals Work. 



ranged at regular distances announced halls, lodges, 

 and passages which the ants proposed to construct : 

 it was, in short, the laying out of a new story. Each 

 ant, then, carried between its jaws the pellet of earth 

 it had formed by scraping the bottom of its dwelling 

 with the end of its mandibles. This little mass of 

 earth, being made of particles only just collected to- 

 gether, could readily be moulded just as the ants wished ; 

 and when they had put it into the position it was in- 

 tended for, they divided it and pressed upon it with 

 their jaws so as to fill up the smallest crannies of their 

 wall. Their antennae followed every movement, touch- 

 ing each pellet of earth ; and as soon as a particle had 

 been placed in position the whole mass was made more 

 compact by being lightly pressed by the forefeet. After, 

 tracing out the plan of their masonry by laying here 

 and there foundations for the pillars and partitions 

 they wished to erect, the insects raised them higher 

 by adding fresh materials. It often happened that two 

 little walls, which were to form a gallery, were raised 

 opposite one another, a little distance apart. When 

 they had reached a height of rather less than half an 

 inch, the ants busied themselves in covering in the 

 space left between them by a vaulted ceiling. After a 

 while they ceased to work upwards, as if they con- 

 sidered the walls high enough ; they then placed par- 

 ticles of moistened earth against the interior and upper 

 part of each wall, almost at right angles to it, thus form- 

 ing a ledge which would, as it extended, join that coming 

 from the opposite side. These ledges were about one- 

 twenty-fifth of an inch in thickness, and the breadth 

 of the galleries was usually about a quarter of an inch. 



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