The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1883-05-19
ANTS AND THEIR CURIOUS WAYS.

You would hardly know how to 90 TO
work to find out the daily life and du-
ties Of creatures so little as ants. Yet
the scientific men who have spent years
in the study have learned not only their
habits, how they make their homes and
bring up their babies, what they eat and
how they fight, but have even gone so
far as to discover some of their senti-
ments and emotions. A late book on
animal intelligence, published by the
Appletons, tells some very interesting
things about them.
One naturalist who has studied their
ways found that some of them feel
friendship. and pity for suffering, and
he tells it thus:
Zone day, watching small column
of these ants, placed little stone on
one of them to secure it. They rushed
to the rescue; some bit at the stone
and tried to move it, others seized the
prisoner by the legs and tugged with
such force that l thought the legs would
be pulled off, but they persevered till
they got the captive free. | next COW
cred one up with piece of clay, leav-
ing only the ends of its antenne pro-
| iecting. 1t was soon discovered by its
| fellows, which set to work Immediately,
and by biting off pieces of the clay soon
! liberated it. The excitement and ardor
with which they carried on their uniag
| cling eXertions for the rescue of their
! comrade could not have been greater if
/ they had been human beings"
Another writer gives a curious ac-
count of how an ant-the Texas har-
vesting ant-sleeps and awakes:
TO illustrate the soundness of the
sleep, take the quill-pen with which /
write and apply the feather end of it to
an ant who is asleep. She has chosen a
little oval depression in the surface, and
lies with face toward the lamp. Her
legs are drawn up close to the body.
She is perfectly still | gently draw the
feather tip along the body, 'stroking
with the fur, if may so say. There is
no motion" After trying in vain to
waken her by various motions of the
feather end of the pen, he finally
arouses the sleeper by sharp touch of
the quill. "She stretches out her head,
then her legs, which she also shakes,
steps nearer to the light and begins to
cleanse herself. This act invariably
follows the waking of ants from sleep"
(AnOther good example from the ants,
you see.) 81 have several times seen
the ants yawqing after awakening.
use this word for lack of one which
more accurately expresses the behavior.
The action is very much like that of the
human animal; the mandibles are
thrown open, the tongue is
sometimes thrust out, and the limbs
stretched with the appearance at least
of that tension which accompanies the
yawn in the genus hOmO,'
The old story of ants INDUCING in
games and play was for a long time
thought to be a fable, but grave scien-
tihc gentlemen of our day have seen it.
and we shall have to believe it ihow
queer as it seems. The old story was
told by Huber, who "saw these ants Oh
fine day assembled on the surface OF
their nests, and behaving in a way thai
he could only explain rs Stimulating fes
tival sports or other games. They
raised themselves on their hind legs
embraced each other with their foul
legs, seized each other by the antenn@
feet, or mandibles, and wrestled, but al
| in fliendliest fashion. They then lie
90, ran after each other, and PLAYED
hide-and-seek. When one was victori
Gus, it seized all the others in the rims
and tumbled them over like nine-pins.
/ So much for the old writer; now say
the new: 1.-The players caught each othe
by the feet or jaws, rolled over eacl
other on the ground like boys playing
pulled each other inside the entrance o
, their nest, only to come out again, ant
so on All this was done without ba,
> temper, or any squirting of poison, ant
twas clear that all the rivalry wa
5 friendly"
1t must be a startling thing to break
twig from tree and see the live ant
= run out. Yet it may be done in Ney
: South Wales, where one family of ant
regularly makes its home inside tn
branches, digging ont the pith even t
: the twigs, and not harming the life {
the tree in the least.
That is no more curious home tina
one made by another family out of tire
leaves glued together in some way
form a hollow ball, and lined with
sort of paper, the whole hanging to tn
branch.
>, To build bridge would surely seer
= to be beyond the power of even so wis
little creatures as ants, yet they hay
accomplished this hard thing in NOR
y than one way. One party of anti
:, wishing to go up into tree, for reason
= of their own. found their way stOppe
: by broad cloth, soaked in Tobacco
! water. Did they give it upp Far froI
1t They went back to the groun'