262 FIELD, FOREST AND FARM 



of their cattle, suffer no stranger to come and lay 

 claim to the food-supply they themselves are prepar- 

 ing to appropriate. With their mandibles they drive 

 off all intruders; they patrol the twig in vigilant 

 defense and stand careful guard over their herds. 

 If the danger becomes too menacing, they hasten to 

 carry away their livestock and pasture it elsewhere, 

 in a safe place. 



"Or, as still another device, they take little pellets 

 of earth and build around the twig a sort of pavilion, 

 a structure with a very narrow opening, a sheep-fold, 

 in a word, with a few leaves growing inside it and 



Texas Bed Ant 



furnishing sustenance to the enclosed flock. In this 

 quiet retreat the proprietors milk their ewes, safely 

 sheltered from rain and sun and, most important of 

 all, from alien ants. 



"We have in this region a rather large reddish 

 ant known as the red ant or Amazon ant, which can- 

 not without help build its house, raise its larvae, pro- 

 cure food, or even eat food ; but with its hooked man- 

 dibles it is admirably equipped for fighting and pil- 

 lage. Slaves are the object of its predatory raids, 

 slaves to feed it, to go out after provisions, to build 

 the ant-hill, and to rear the young. A small black 



