226 
ANIMAL CURIOSITIES 
able animals that lurk within the buildings, 
their visitations prove to be a benefit in disguise. 
Ants have their gentler as well as their 
sterner forms of occupation, for some of them 
take up the vocation of dairymaids or milkmaids. 
Their “ cows 55 are plant-lice, aphides or green¬ 
fly as they are variously called, and the 44 milk ” 
they yield is a colourless and sweet-tasting 
liquid or “ honey-dew ” that the insects exude 
from their bodies. The 44 milking ” process is 
conducted in a very curious manner, the ants 
encouraging the “ cows ” to expel drops of 
honey-dew by gently stroking them upon the 
body with their antennae. Sometimes the ants 
keep the aphides as prisoners, housing them in 
special dormitories or 44 stables ” that are 
excavated out of the branches of trees. Narrow 
tunnels lead to these 44 stables,” of just sufficient 
width to allow the ants to pass through, but 
not large enough to accommodate the greater 
bulk of the aphides’ bodies. 
To turn to quite a different type of occupa¬ 
tion, we find that the gentle art of thieving is 
indulged in by quite a number of creatures. 
Indeed, the majority of them are not above 
helping themselves to the goods of their fellows, 
more especially if the same be in the nature of 
food. 
Some of them, however, may be said to be 
