AfitiL 6, igoi.j 
FOREST . AND «^ STREAM' 
268 
are gone; the big trees that shaded the water are gone; 
the fish are gone, for the brook is no longer a brook, ex- 
cept for a few hours after heavy rains have fallen; but' 
that boy has not forgotten that first fish he caught. Its 
capture, to the minutest detail, is remembered more 
"•'ividly than the taking of four-pound small-mouth from 
a Michigan lake one delicious morning last June. 
O. H. Hampton. 
VI.— Gray Squirrel in a School Hoose. 
If the grown-up people would retain in their memory 
the keen suffering and pathos of sensitive childhood they 
would have more sympathy for the little ones about. 
When I was a kid a neighbor told me he was looking 
lor some fice puppies at his house pretty soon, and that 
he would give me choice. I heard of their arrival at 
once, and I scarcely waited for their eyes to open before 
I went to get mine. I chose a tawny one, with a white 
rmg around his neck, white breast, blaze in his face, 
w;hite feet and a white tip on his tail. He was about the 
size then of a half-grown rat. My two little cousins, 
Sam and Arch, went with me. and I snuggled the wee 
thing in my bosom and we struck for home. On our 
way we named him Tip. Along the road lived a neigh- 
bor who had five or six pet deer, which we met. and 
die old doe came up scenting about us, and I pulled 
Tip out and stuck his nose to the deer's, and he began 
to wiggle and whine, whereupon we pronounced that Tip 
would be a great deer dog. The prophecy came true. 
I have since owned as good hounds as ever loped the 
red brush after a buck, and as good bird dogs as Vir- 
ginia afforded, but none of them has ever filled just the 
place of that great little fice. How many ground squir- 
rels that little dog would put to hole that I would dig 
out, or run out by pouring in water; how many rabbits 
I would cut out of hollow trees or tear down rock piles 
to get; hoAv many gray squirrels would 1 throw rocks 
at half a day and worry until they would jump out of the 
tree and Tip would catch them. Our darky playmate 
taught him all manner of tricks and used to paint the 
white places on him with poke berriers or indigo and 
call him his show dog. 
Of course now and then we had to go to school. An 
old school teacher by the name of DjDnald McDonald 
took up with my daddy, and for years made his home at 
our house. He was the Scotchiest old Scotchman you 
ever saw. He had had a mail contract in some of the 
Southwestern States and got lost in a swamp and cane- 
break, and the hardship had wrecked his heahh. He 
was a stern and pious old Presbyterian, and my cousins 
and myself, who were far from being pious, made life 
miserable to that good old man. His school house was 
a log cabin, out of which, at the rear end, a log was cut 
and a row of window pane glass was put in the place. 
The benches were made of split log^ the fiat side up 
and wooden pegs for legs, and no backs. We boys would 
never go around the road with old Donald to school, but 
preferred a new way, as we claimed,' across a steep ridge 
and through the woods. One morning Tip treed a gray 
squirrel in a hickory and we set the dinner bucket in 
the weeds, and the other two boys agreed to carry the 
unhulled hickory nuts to me by hatfuls if I would knock 
the squirrel out. I threw many a nut before I brought 
it down, but when I did Tip gathered it, and I ran and 
caught it by the back of the neck, still alive. With it 
we ran for school, of course leaving our dinner bucket 
We put on a bold front and went into the school house, 
and there sat old Donald McDonald upon his plank 
pedestal, mad as a hornet, his white, palsied head shaking 
and- a switch about eight feet long trembling in his 
hands. We went to the ash trough (which was a sugar 
trough) and turned it over our squirrel, and Tip curled 
up on top of it. We got our books and went to spelling 
aloud with the others, swinging our bodies as we pro- 
nounced the syllables. Toward noon, when Donald had 
turned his back, I whispered to my cousins that we 
ought to look after our squirrel. We went over and 
raised the edge of the trough, and Tip turned his alert 
little head to one side, made a dash for the squirrel, 
turned over the trough, and through the door to the 
fence went squirrel and dog and every one of the thirty 
boys and girls in the house. Old Donald followed with 
his switch, and from some cause Sam hung up On the 
fence, and Donald gave him a furious lick on the right 
place, whereupon Sam, rubbing the stinging skin, made 
the air blue for a while with words shocking to a Pres- 
bj'terian. For three hundred yards along the fence we 
chased that squirrel until it finally took refuge into a 
barn near by, and we tore hay and at least fifty dozen 
bundles of oats to pieces before the old lady of the house 
drove us all out. 
Poor old Donald was prostrated when we returned 
and dismissed us early that day and went home. We 
went after -our dinner bucket, and accusing Arch of 
losing it ran off and left him. In trying to overtake 
us down the steep hill he ran headlong against a shel- 
bark hickory and nearly knocked his brains out. We 
were in no hurry getting home that evening, and 
although Donald had summoned our daddies to hear 
his charges against us, he had, with the Scotch love of 
fairness, disclosed nothing. 
The escapade of the morning and Arch's bloody head 
made an ugly looking case for us. As soon as we were 
in Donald began his narration, telling the scrupulous 
and exact truth, and his vivid picture served more to 
amuse than to anger our daddies, for in their feeble at- 
tempt to reprimand us each kept his back turned; but 
they could not keep their sides from shaking. In the 
meantime we had fixed Arch so as his tale would not 
go hard with us. 
Tip would run about of a night now and then, and he 
was not particular as to whether the company he kept 
was with big or little dogs; so he fell into a disorderly 
gang of the large size, and one night was killed by a 
big blue bull dog belonging to a near neighbor. His 
fate was promptly reported to us by our darky play- 
mate (for it seems that he and Tip had been prowling 
together that night), and the day was a sad one for us. 
The stern old folks about the house seemed to have 
lost something, too, and looked very thoughtful. 
We dug a grave in which to bury Tip; we would put 
him in and take him out and cry over him. Although 
Arch lisped badly, still he could sing like a bird, and 
he sang "Lily Dale," while the tears streamed down his 
cheeks; then he prayed that Tip might go to heaven, 
and we covered our brave little dog up. 
We had, however, scarcely performed these sad rites 
until we began to plan how we might kill old Ring, the 
bull dog that had murdered Tip. We had recently and 
clandestinely procured a cheap single-barrel shotgun, so 
we beat a bullet out of some bar lead and loaded this 
gun, with a solemn promise never to shoot it again until 
we had shot Ring. Ring himself was given to nocturnal 
perambulations, but many was the moonlight nights we 
laid in the corners of the lane fence before we put an 
end to Ring; but we did, and then we got into sure 
enough trouble. Graeme. 
Virginia. 
— » 
An Outing in Acadia* 
BY EDWARD A. SAMUELS. 
My description of the aphides and their peculiarities in- 
terested the Murrays very much, and Phcebe declared 
that she would avail herself of the first opportunity for 
watching the curious little insects while they were being 
milked. 
"Yes," added Mrs. Murray, "and I hope also to have a 
chance to see the operation. The ants are singular little 
creatures. I have read somewhere that some species are 
very quarrelsome and they fight with their neighbors and 
make slaves of them; is that true?" 
"Oh, yes," I replied; "the battles of the ants have 
been witnessed by a number of good observers, and there 
is no doubt whatever of the slave-making proclivities of 
some species." 
"What horrid little wretches the red ants are!" ex- 
claimed Phoebe. "I have been bitten several times by 
them in the woods; they are very savage when, they are 
molested." 
"But what do the ants need of slaves?" asked- Mrs. 
Murray. "I always supposed they were among the most 
industrious of insects." 
"Yes." added Phoebe; "their industry has passed into a 
proverb." 
"We can only conjecture as to the cause or the origin 
of the habit," I replied ; "but it is now so thoroughly 
established that some species depend absolutely on their 
slaves to do .all their work." 
This slave-making habit is one of the most curious 
phases of ant. life, and it has been carefully studied by 
many prominent naturalists, 
_ Pierre Hiiber was one of the earlier students of this 
singular trait, and to his observations have been added 
those of Darwin and many of the later entomologists. 
The account given by Darwin is most interesting. He 
states that the species known as the Formica rufescens, 
which Huber studied in Switzerland, is absolutely de- 
pendent on its slaves.- "Without their aid," he says, 
"the species would certainly become extinct in a s'ngle 
year. The males and fertile females do no work of any 
kind, and the workers, or sterile females, though most 
energetic and courageous in capturing slaves, do no other 
work. They are incapable even of making their own 
nests or of feeding their own larvae. 
"When the old nest is found inconvenient and they have 
to migrate, it is the slaves which determine the migration 
and actually carry their masters in their jaws. So utterly 
helpless are the masters that when Huber shut up thirty 
of them without a slave, but with plenty of the food 
which they like best, and with their own larvse and pupEe 
to stimulate them to work, they did nothing; they could 
not even feed themselves, and many perished of hunger. 
Huber then introduced a single slave (F. fusca), and she 
instantly set to work, fed and saved the survivors ; made 
some cells and tended the larvse, and put all to rights." 
Darwin also describes another slave-making species 
found in England called the Formica sanguinea, and in 
comparing their habits with those of the other species 
says: "Let it be observed what a contrast the instinctive 
habits of F. sanguinea present with those of the Conti- 
nental F. rufescens. The latter does not build its own 
nest, does not determine its own migrations, does not col- 
lect food for itself or its young, and cannot even feed 
itself — it is absolutely dependent on its numerous slaves, 
Formica sauguinea, on the other hand, possesses much 
fewer slaves, and in the early part of summer extremely 
few. The masters determine when and where a new 
nest shall be formed, and when they migrate the masters 
carry the slaves. Both in Switzerland and England the 
slaves seem to have the exclusive care of the larvse, and 
the masters alone go on slave-making expeditions. In 
Switzerland the slaves and masters work together, making 
and bringing materials for the nest; both, but chiefly the 
slaves, tend and milk, as it may be called, their aphides, 
and thus both collect food for the community." 
"Well, but does nothing prey upon the ants?" asked 
Mrs. Murray. "Surely they must have their enemies." 
"Yes, indeed, many of them, too. Some of the birds 
devour them greedily, as, for example, your golden- 
winged woodpecker, that handsome species that the boys 
call the highholder, flicker, pigeon woodpecker, etc. 
"The toad also loves to take his position on an ant 
hill, and thrusting out his tongue, with the quickness of a 
flash picks off great numbers of them ; the bear is also very 
fond of ants, and we often find dismantled nests that he 
has destroyed." 
Among the insect tribes the ant appears to have but 
few enem:es. One of the most interesting of these is the 
so-called ant lion, which in the larvse form catches and 
eats a considerable number. This curious larva is fur- 
nished with long formidable toothed jaws; it excavates 
a funnel-shaped hole in sandy soil and buries itself in the 
sand at the bottom with its expanded mandibles scarcely 
appear"ng above the surface. In this position, according 
to Sanborn, the entomologist, it awaits the approach of 
ants or other small insects, which losing their foothold 
on the loose sand fall easily into its open jaws ; if. how- 
ever, one of these should be warned of its danger and 
endeavor to escape, the ant lion is said to come forth 
from its concealment and by means of its broad, flattened 
head to throw quantities of sand from the bottom or 
sides of the cavity toward its victim; this has not only 
the effect of deepening the hole and making its sides 
steeper, but also of striking and overwhelming its prey, 
causing it to tumble within reach of the ant lion. 
The ants of our American species do not as a rule molest 
the larger animals unless they are attacked, but there 
are some species in tropical countries which cause all 
animated beings to flee from their approach. An officer 
who was engaged in a Government survey in Honduras 
recently published an account of the movements of an 
LARVA OF ANT LION. 
army of warrior ants, which is very interesting. He was 
sitting in his hammock one intensely hot afternoon under' 
the thatched roof of his bamboo hut, when a native came 
running in, and with excited gestures bade him follow 
him. He did so, knowing that something important was 
transpiring or he would not have acted so excitedly. The 
native pointed to an open place. There on the rolling 
savanna stretched a wide black belt extending far back 
into the deep shadows of the adjacent forest. It rose and 
fell with every formation of the ground, and like a huge 
snake slowly crept toward the village. "The warrior 
ants," exclaimed the native. "They will soon be here; 
ANT LION— ADtTLT. % 
you had -better untie your dogs or the ants vdll kill them." 
, Acting upon his advice the officer loosed his dogs, and 
retiring to a safe distance watched the approach of the 
warriors. In cojintless. multitudes they swarmed over the 
plain, marching in compact order, like a well-drilled 
army. Before them scurried a heterogeneous mass of 
lizards, grasshoppers, frogs, beetles and other reptiles and 
, insects in a wild scamper to reach a place of safety. 
Soon the advance guard reached his hut and disappeared 
within, then the main column appeared, and in a few 
moments tlie floor, roof, wails arid rafters were black with 
them. Like the soft rustle of dried grass stirred by a 
gentle breeze, came the sound of their presence in the 
LARVA OF ANT LION IN ITS PIT AWAITING ITS PREY. 
leaves of the thatched roof. The sounds increased in 
loudness as the rats, mice, lizards, .cockroaches, centi- 
pedes and others of their ilk who had long made the 
roof their home tried vainly to escape. Some succeeded 
in getting away from the house, but only to fall victims to 
the surrounding hordes without. One large cockroach 
made a plucky fight, but overpowered by numbers, he 
gradually relaxed his efforts and was soon dismembered, 
each ant carrying off a portion of his body as a trophy." 
The most exciting battle was with a snake about three 
feet in length that tried to slip away unseen. The ants 
quick! J' surrounded him, however, land fought with ter- 
rible ferocity. With every switch of his tail the snake 
killed a score of his tormentors, but their places were soon 
'ft 
iii 
- 
NEST OF A COLONY OF TERMITES. 
filled by the black swar-m which swept unceasingly on. 
Finally the writhings of the snalce became fainter and 
fainter, and at last ceased entirely, and then, and not 
until then, d"d the ants relinquish their attack. All day 
long they marched through the house until at sundown 
the end of the column had passed and was lost to view in 
the thickness of the forest. 
Another interesting group of ants, usually called the 
white ants, are the Termitidce, They are not true ants, 
however, as they belong in the great order Neuroptera, or 
nerve-winged insects, in which occur the dragon flies, etc., 
while the ants proper belong to the Hymenoptera, in which 
are included the wasps, bees, etc. 
The termites of Africa live, like the ants, in large 
colonies, and the structures that they sometimes rear are 
