ANTS AT HOME. 'i'5 



is the mother of the whole tribe. She is well taken 

 care of, fed, and kept clean, and the eggs she lays are 

 also the objects of watchful attention, but she has 

 neither the freedom nor the power of any member of 

 her family, for she may not even come and go as do 

 the others, or share in their delightful labors. The 

 only laws ants obey are their own wishes ; they do 

 nothing because they feel obliged to do it. 



The sense of duty — of forcing one's self to do or 

 not to do some particular thing because it ought or 

 ought not to be done — belongs only to mankind. But 

 ants love to be busy, just as boys and girls love to ex- 

 ercise every muscle in their limbs and bodies in health- 

 giving occupations ; and they iiud plenty to do. 

 First of all in importance in an ant-hill are the baby 

 ants, for the whole life of the tribe depends on their 

 well-being. "While the little ones are yet in the egg 

 they are constantly kept in the part of the formicary 

 or ant nest best suited for hatching them. 



In warm days they are brought near the surface, 

 but during wet or chilly weather they are carried 

 away to the deepest chambers. When they hatch 

 they are without legs, and have to be constantly, so 

 to speak, in the arms of their attendants. These baby 

 ants are really what are generally taken for ants' eggs, 

 when on disturbing a nest they are seen as their 

 nurses hurry away with them in their mandibles or 

 pinchers. The real eggs are very minute, and gen- 

 erally escape notice. 



These babies, we are told, "are incessantly and 

 carefully tended by their nurses, who clean them and 



