THE ARMY ANTS’ HOME TOWN 87 
‘tenne the larva, disapprove, and again shift its 
position. It was a real survival of the lucky, 
as to who should avoid being exhausted by kind- 
ness and over-solicitude. I uttered many a 
chuckle at the half-ensilked unfortunates being 
toted about like mummies, and occasionally giv- 
ing a sturdy, impatient kick which upset their 
tormentors and for a moment created a little 
swirl of mild excitement. 
There was no order of packing. The larve 
were fitted together anyway, and meagerly cov- 
ered with dust of wood and shreds of cloth. One 
big tissue of wood nearly an inch square was too. 
great a temptation to be let alone, and during 
the course of my observation it covered in turn 
almost every group of larve in sight, ending by 
being accidentally shunted over the edge and 
killing a worker near the kitchen middens. 
There was only a single layer of larve; in no 
case were they piled up, and when the platform 
became crowded, a new column was formed and 
hundreds taken outside. To the casual eye there 
was no difference between these legionaries and 
a column bringing in booty of insects, eggs, and 
pupz; yet here all was solicitude, never a bite 
too severe, or a blunder of undue force. 
