The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1885-10-15
FOR OUR YOUNG FOLKS.
THE ANT.

THE ANT.
The Wonderful Intelligence and Skill of
This Remarkable Insect.
If you have ever had your head ex-
amined the phrenologist would tell you
that it was very nice thing to have a
good big head. But somebody else
might repeat to you the well-known
couplet: f@ se@
Little head, little witt
s- & Great head, not hit!''
But how is it with the ants, who have
such small heads and great witsP
There IS nothing on earth. except
man, that can surpass the wonderful
devices of those heads, no bigger than
if they belonged to SO many pins
Watch how they build their tunnels
and cover them in like so many railroad
engineers! See how they stop every
now and then to study out their plans;
how they consider all obstacles and
avoid themi how they use every leaf
and stick and straw to make wall or
roof to their galleries! But who is the
foreman, or .'boss," as men sometimes
say? A new plan is thought of, he goes
| to work upon it, the others soon adopt
the Improvements and help the skilful
inventor. They are all as busy as pos
sible, and yet they work always on one
common plan.
The Queen lays her eggs, the workers
at once take care of them, running
with them, from place to place, and al
ways with some end in view; and when
the baby ants come, if you could look
inside any busy little ant-hill, with the
rising OF the sun, you might see these
careful little nurses Cfor they have real
nurses for their children Just as we do),
who live in the upper stories of that
wonderful house, very early astir and
on theirway to call their young masters
from down below ~
And then you would see them tap
! ping them with their antenna, which
look like horns, as much as 10 saw:
Come, children, time to get up; don't
you know the sun is up?" and thus
waking them they carry them through
| the long galleries that lead to the top
OF the ant-hill. and lay them outside
very carefully that the bright rays of
the sun may warm them and help them
to grow. And they are very careful,
| too, not to leave them in the heat of the
sun after the early morning. AS soon.
as the air gets too warm they carry
| them into the rooms near the top where
the rays have penetrated, and where.
the warmth can still reach them, and
again further below if they think it best
But the older ants can bear the sun,
and like to feel its rays; and though
they are very industrious, yet as they
begin to work with the dawn they take
little rest, as people do sometimes in
the heat of the day, and often lie heaped
| together in the sunshine.
Just as long as the baby ants can not
run alone they are dressed like the
young children in the East, or like the.
babies which the Indian squaw hangs.
behind her back, or on q peg IN her tent.
They have natural swaddfing clothes,
for they are wrapped up so tightly in
their larval covering that no legs can
be seen, only head and wings, traced.
through the transparent skin in which
they are folded. OF course YOU know
the baby ant begins life in an egg,
which, in a couple of weeks, is Matched,
and then the nurses take them in charge,
as we have said, to keep them clean, to
brush and comb and shampoo them,
and very soon they are ready to begin
the next change.
If you could only look at these tiny,
insects (the nurses) through micro
scope, you would see on their legs
some very fine soft hairs, which they
use as brushes, and spur close bv,
which, if needful, we may imagine can
do the work of q comb, And the sham
pooing is done by working about
kneading and distending the thin skin
which covers their limbs until it is,
ready to open and let them 90 free.
Then these baby ants wind curtain of
silk around their own little bodies and
GO to sleep, to wake up full-groWn ants,
without guide, overseer and ruler"
except the tender services of the nurse.
Isn't 1t wonderful that these little ants
can do so much for themselves? SO ex-
actly right, and in such order, too,
each one knowing its business and do
ing it just as if they had commander
to order their every movement.
No one ant seems to have any person
al property, neither house, stores, nor
eggs. Everything belongs to ali, and
yet, while the whole world is wrapped
in a lazy content in the summer wealth
er they are always tailoring very hard
for the whole community. And II, per-
chance, their little citadel is impaired.
as is often the case, they repair the
ruin with the utmost neatness and dis
patch. k.~ r.5 s.
Did you ever see an ant seize a pei
let, ora stone, and drag it backwards
up a steep incline, using it's hind legs to
cling on to rough places, often Juggling
away at a weight far greater than that
of its own body? Some hoist aloft in
their front arms, as. it were. a stick or
piece of grass, two or three times Its
own length, moving it forward as if in
the air. And when they build, each
addition is put in what each considers
the best place, but the general form of
the dome grows into curiously repu-a
lar diminishing curve, as if every one
bore the architects elevation in his
pocket,
Some of these wonderful workers
make desperate attempts to move,
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