194 A BUSY CITY AND THOROUGHFARE, 



while others that seem to have obtained what they 

 searched for, are coming down, and after getting 

 on the straight road, without wandering or turning 

 back, hurry as fast as their little legs can carry 

 them, toward their cherrywood house. Incident 

 ally I have reached up to gather a spray whereto 

 is attached one of those peculiar nut-tassels, made 

 conspicuous by the foliaceous bracts, and find it 

 fairly alive with small green aphides or water-beech 

 lice. On the under parts of the leaves around the 

 twigs, in the cups surrounding the nutlets, are 

 these parasites in myriads, drawing the life juices 

 from them, which by some chemical process in 

 their abdominal retorts is changed into a saccharine 

 substance called honey-dew. 



Ages since the ants, that are very fond of sweet 

 things, discovered this fact, and handed it down 

 from swarm to swarm, and so these sprightly fel- 

 lows to-day are visiting their confectionary stores 

 among the leaves. This species of aphides are 

 green and wingless, having two tubes on the hind 

 part of the body, from which exudes the sweet 

 substance the ants are so fond of. 



Here comes one down, its pouch distended with 

 the extract of hornbeam. Let me time it and 

 ascertain its pedestrian powers. Sixty feet of 



