222 
STRANGE DWELLINGS . 
and timely arrangements for the changing seasons. It is, in 
short, endowed with skill, ingenuity, and untiring patience, 
sufficient to enable it successfully to contend with the varying 
exigencies which it may have to encounter in the life-conflict. 
4 When it has selected a situation for its habitation, if on 
ordinary dry ground, it bores a hole, around which it raises the 
surface three and sometimes six inches, forming a low circular 
mound, having a very gentle inclination from the centre to the 
outer border, which on an average is three or four feet from 
the entrance. But if the location is chosen on low, flat, wet 
land, liable to inundation, though the ground may be perfectly 
dry at the time the ant sets to work, it nevertheless elevates 
the mound, in the form of a pretty sharp cone, to the height of 
fifteen to twenty inches or more, and makes the entrance near 
the summit. Around the mound, in either case, the ant clears 
the ground of all obstructions, and levels and smooths the 
surface to the distance of three or four feet from the gate of 
the city, giving the space the appearance of a handsome pave- 
ment, as it really is. 
4 Within this paved area, not a blade of any green thing is 
allowed to grow, except a single species of grain-bearing grass. 
Having planted this crop in a circle around, and two or three 
feet from the centre of the mound, the insect tends and cul- 
tivates it with constant care, cutting away all other grasses and 
weeds that may spring up amongst it, and all around outside 
the farm-circle to the extent of one or two feet more. The 
cultivated grass grows luxuriantly, and produces a heavy crop 
of small, white, flinty seeds, which under the microscope very 
closely resemble ordinary rice. When ripe, it is carefully 
harvested and carried by the workers, chaff and all, into the 
granary cells, where it is divested of the chaff and packed 
away. The chaff is taken out and thrown beyond the limits of 
the paved area. 
‘ During protracted wet weather, it sometimes happens that 
the provision-stores become damp, and are liable to sprout and 
spoil. In this case, on the first fine day, the ants bring out 
the damp and damaged grain, and expose it to the sun till it is 
