Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1882-10-29
ANTS AND THEIR HAEITs.

and called on her with thu result above
stated.
ANTS AND THEIR HABITS.
| a ses" Insight into Same Pec..liurssies Of
Sae Iasect Word.
From Under the Sum-" by Phil Robinson.
The commonest of all Indian ants, G. at
any rate, the most conspicuous, are the
biack ones, to be found narauding OF every
sldeboarr:. arS -hcen co-3cal state saer,z
to be one of criminal trsspass. These.
from their size, are perhaps almost the
most interesting. as it requires little OK.
exertion to distinguish between the classes
OF individuals that in the aggregate make
ap nest OF ants. There is the clustering
soldier, a policeman ant, who goes about
vagging his great head or Swapping his
Jaws at nothing; furious exceedingly when
lnsulted; but, as a rule, preferring to patrol
IN the shady neighborhoods- back
waters of Hfe-where he can peer idly into
| cracks and holes. See him as he saunters
up the path, pretending to be or the look.
out for suspicious characters, stopping
strangers with impairment inquiries, Ieer
| ing at the modest wire-worm who ia hurry
ing home.
Watch him. staggering to meet friend
! whose beat ends at the corner and with
| whom he will loiter for the next hour.
Suddenly blossom falls from the orange
tree overhead. His display of energy ia
now terrific. He dashes about in all direc
lions, jostles the foot passengers and then
pretends that they have attacked him. He
continually loses his own balance and has
| to scramble out Of worm holes and dusty
crevices, o. he comes in collision with a
blade OF grass which he bravely turns I'D
and utterly discounts, and then or a sud
den, tail up, he whirls home to report at
headquarters the recent violent volcanic
disturbances which, being at his post, he
was fortunately able to suppress.
Another and more numerous section of
the community of ants are the loafers who
spend lives of the most laborious idIeness.
Instead of joining the long thread of
honest worker ants, stretching from the
nest to the next garden, and busy import
ing food to the nurseries, they hang about
the doors and exc out day spent IN sham
industry BY retiring st intervals to perform
an elaborate toilet Between whites the
loafer affects violent energy. He makes
a rush along the high road, jostling ell the
laden returnes; stops most of them to ask
| commonplace questions Or to wonder idly
at their burdens; and then, as if struck by
bright idea, or the sudden remembrance
OF something he had forgotten, he turns
sharp round and rushes home-tumbling
headlong into the nest with an avalanche
of rubbish behind him, which it will take
the whole colony a long time to bring cut
again. The toafer, meanwhile, retires to
clean his legs. Sometimes, also.
IN order to be thought active and
Ugilant, he raises false alarm
of danger and skirmishes valiantly. in the
rear with an imaginary foe, musk of corn
seed or thistle-down. Oue such Ioafer
came, under my own observation, to a mis-
cradle end. Thinking to be busy chiefly
he entered into combat with very small
fly. But the small fly was the unsuspeeteii
possessor of a powerful sting, whereupor
the unhappy ioafsr, with his tail curIed up
to his mouth, rolled about in agony until a
policeman catching sight Of him. and see.
ing that he was either drunk, riotous. or
incapable. ripped him into two pieces, and
a worker" happening to pass by carried
him off to the nest as food for the rest of
the family. An honest ant, On the other
hand, has no equal for fxedness of DUR
pose and an obstinate undagging industry.
The day breaks, the front door is opened.
and the honest ant ascends to daylight. He
finds that passe--by has effaced the track
along which he ran so often yesterday, but
his memory is good, and natural land. |
marks abound. He casts about like ri |
geon when first thrown Up n the air, and
then he's of. Straigh. up the path to the |
little snag of stone that IS sticking out-up
one sid of it and down the other-over the /
banA-through forest of weeds-round O. |
lake of dew, and then, with an extraordi- /
nary instinct for straight line, he goes |
wh1rllng Of across the cucumber bed To |
some far spot, where he knows is living a |
stem of maize heavily laden with grain. |
Then, with fraction OF seedin his pinca-s
he hurries home, hands it 10 over to the !
commissariat, and is Of again for another.
And SO. if the grain holds out, be will 60 on
until sunset, and when the fluffy, round
faced owls, sitting on the sentinel Cypress
trees. are screeching an elect to the lin
gering day birds, the honest ant is busy
closing up his doors; and before the NY
mas. passing overhead and calling as they
go to belated wanderers, have reached the
bamboo clunps which sough by the river,
he will be sleeping the sleep OF the honest.
With industry. however, the catalogue Of
the virtues of ants begins md ends. They
have an instinct of hard work, and, useless
Or not. they do it-in the most labcrious
way they can; but, except for the
wisdom which industry argues, ants have
no title whatever to the epithet of ewise."
Until they learn that to rrn Up one side of
a post and down the other is not the quick
est way OF getting past the post, shey can
scarcely be accused OF even common sense.
e No family Dyes were ever so popular as
the Diamond Dyes. They never fail. Tie
Black is far superior to logwood. The other
coiors are brilliant.