THE ARMY ANTS’ HOME TOWN 85 
duced a quantity of fine sawdust, which was 
sprinkled over the larva. I had made a parti- 
tion of a bit of a British officer’s tent which I had 
used in India and China, made of several layers 
of colored canvas and cloth. The ants found 
a loose end of this, teased it out and unraveled 
it, so that all the larve near by were blanketed 
with a gay, parti-colored covering of fuzz. 
All this strange work was hurried and car- 
ried on under great excitement. The scores of 
big soldiers on guard appeared rather ill at ease, 
as if they had wandered by mistake into the 
wrong department. They sauntered about, 
bumped into larve, turned and fled. A constant 
stream of workers from the nest brought hun- 
dreds more larve; and no sooner had they been 
planted and débris of sorts sifted over them, 
than they began spinning. A few had already 
swathed themselves in cocoons—exceedingly thin 
coverings of pinkish silk. As this took place 
out of the nest,—in the jungle they must be cov- 
ered with wood and leaves. The vital necessity 
for this was not apparent, for none of this débris 
was incorporated into the silk of the cocoons, 
which were clean and homogeneous. Yet the 
hundreds of ants gnawed and tore and labored 
