Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1883-10-20
sIx.LEGGED POLICEMEN.
The Arrest Of a Drunken Ant-SOme.
thing About Animal Prisons and

From the New York Sun.
Gust cast your eye over this" said q natural
ist "There is evidence that among the animals
there is police department or an ambulance
corps, one or the Otherv
The reporter closed one eye holding 1t shut
with one hand and with the other gazed through
powerful magnifier He saw three ants, and
one was apparently in very maudlin condition.
1t raised its legs in the air, waved its head to
and fro like an elephant, and evinced decided
desire to walk backward. In the meantime the
other two ants were vainly endeavoring to coax
1t along, at first caressng it with their antenne.
and finally. as If out of patience, Selling it and
marching 1t off out of the range of vision.
THAT" said the naturalist, ais case of
drunk and disorderly: SO or ten DAYS. / fed
the ant on sweetened rum, so that it was actu-
ally drunk then l admitted two sober ants to
see If they would take care of it, and you see
they have done SO.
"The idea of intoxicating ants is original with
Sir John Lubbock. He found that ants nearly
always arrested other ants that he had made
drunk. In fact. if you asked me what was the
most intelligent animal next to man / should
say the ant. No, not because he will get drunk,
but for thousand reasons"
DO you suppose ants imprisOn their kind for
Ofenses!" asked the reporter.
There is no doubt of it, was the reply las
they imprson vast numbers OF insects for va
rous reasons. In fact, the lower animals have
their prisons and prisoners as well as we do. OF
course they little different. but we must
| allow for a difference in tastes EVERYBODY
knows how ants make prisoners of various spe-
cles OF aphides and slaves Of their own kind.
One OF the most remarkable cases of imprison-
ment is that OF the bird hornbill so called from
the wonderful development of it's bill, which is
| only used in crushing fruit. The breeding sea-
son is probably not looked forward to with any
great degree OF pleasure by the birds, as it is
| OF great labor for the father bird. AS the time
approaches the female searches for hollow tree,
and, having formed a rude nest takes her place
within The male now flies away and returns
with its bill full of mud, which it plasters
about the opening of the nest. Load after load
| is thus brought and laid on until the crevice is
completely pastered up with the exception of
| single Orlfce large enough to admit the bill of
the prisoner The mud soon hardeIis, and the
bird Is firmly enclosed, and SO remains until the
young are Matched and well grown The male
bird is not a hard jailer, however. but works to
obtain food for its mate, that she comes out Of
prison in much better condition than her unfor-
tunate jailer.
"Trees are not the only prisons" continued
the speaker. In marine life there is no end of
prisons and prisoners. For example, here is the
beautiful sponge called Venus Flower Basket.
which grows in eastern seas. They are unsightly
objects when first taken up the rich sheeny sill
very framework that we see being merely the
skeleton OF the sponge, SO to speak. So much
like basket work is this skeleton that when they
were first brought to Europe they were sup
posed to be the work Of men, and so brought
fabulous prices. In this one that have you see
there are two prisoner crabs; but how did they
get in9 Each is as large as the end of your lit
tie finger. and the largest hole in the skeleton is
not larger than pinhead.''
The reporter gave it up.
1.-The truth is,' said the naturalist, "that the
crabs are prisoners for life, and have served out
life sentence. In their younger days these
crabs are called by different names. and In one
stage-the zoea-they are extremely small and
live roaming sort of life. During this time
our crabs must have crawled through the minute
window of the living sponge, and were unable
10 get out. The sponge grew, and SO did the
crabs. Finally the sponge was fished up. and
the animal matter was washed away, leaving
the bright silvery prison with the two great
prisoners crawling about-as great a puzzle as
the egg in the bottle"