sly little fellows they are! They tunnel 
their rooms and halls right alongside 
those of the worker ants. They make 
small openings from their halls into the 
halls of the ant hill. Then, when it 
seems safe, they creep into the store 
rooms of the larger ants, and carry food 
back into their own tunnels. The large 
ants cannot follow because the openings 
are too small for them to creep through. 
These little ants act much as mice do 
in the homes of people. But they are by 
no means the worst enemies that the 
ants could have. Some ant hills are 
bothered by strange insects known as 
traveling bars because they give out a 
sweet liquid. They are like the bars, or 
counters, at which people buy drinks and 
sweets. The ants become very fond of 
the liquid given to them by the traveling 
bars, and they feed the bars instead of 
storing food for their own colony. Some¬ 
times whole ant colonies become poor, or 
34 
