194 
A NATURALIST ON THE PROWL. 
which are wonderful to behold. One of the guards 
caresses it with her (they are all Amazons) antennae on 
the head, and up and down the sides, till she comes to 
the milk gland. When she touches this a drop of clear 
liquid appears, which she instantly sucks up. 
This looks selfish, but it is not. Her pail is in her body, 
and when she has filled it, she will carry her precious 
burden to the State nurseries. In time the caterpillar 
arrives at maturity and changes into a chrysalis. It can 
yield no more milk after that, and you would not be 
surprised to hear that the ants killed and ate it. But 
they do no such thing. The guard watches over it still 
for ten days, until the butterfly has emerged and flown 
safely away. 
Take this fact and think over it. You could scarcely 
spend an hour better. Say it is gratitude, such as some- 
times moves us to pension an old horse that has served us 
long and faithfully. Or say it is policy, like that on 
which we act when we institute a close season for game. 
Say what you will, in short, but think your meaning out, 
and you will be a more reverent and a humbler man than 
you were. 
How these communities of ants are founded is a ques- 
