296 LIFE AND HER CHILDREN. 
they establish themselves. They keep the circular 
space round their nests perfectly clean, never allowing 
a weed to encroach upon it except where at the 
edges crops of needle grass grow, of which they 
harvest the seed. Underground their galleries and 
chambers often extend under the whole disk, and 
there can be little doubt that it is chiefly in order to 
get air and ventilation, about which they are very 
particular, that they clear the weeds away.' But 
their work does not end here, for they make from 
three to seven roads, according to the size of the 
nest, branching out into the forest of grasses, so that 
they can go far afield to collect seeds. These roads 
are often more than fifty feet long, and it sounds 
strangely like our own country places when we hear 
that they grow weedy in the winter when little used, 
and are cleared afresh in the spring. 
When we think, however, of the small size of the 
ants in comparison with the vegetation they have to 
destroy, the history becomes much more astonishing. 
Many of the larger and thicker grass stems which 
they saw through with their mandibles to clear their 
disk must be to them like the trunks of trees measur- 
ing six feet across, while the round spaces they keep 
clear are, in relation to their size, equal to a piece of 
country a quarter of a mile in diameter. 
These ants make their nests entirely underground, 
only sometimes having a small dome (see Fig. 94) 
with one or two openings in the top. Their granaries 
are very large, and yet they are not entirely vege- 
tarians, for Mr. M c Cook saw them laying in a com- 
plete store of male and female termites which fell 
round their nest after swarming. 
