The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1885-09-16
Go TO the Ant.


If YOU have ever had your head
examined the phrenologist would
tell you that it is very nice thing
to have a good big head. But some
body else might repeat to you the
well-known couplet:
Little head. little wit
( Great head, not bitl"
But how is it with the ants, who
have such small heads and great
wits?
There is nothing on earth, except
man, that can surpass the wonder
full devices of those heads, no bigger
than if they belonged to SO many
pins.
Watch how they build their tun-
nels and cover them in like SO many
railroad engineersl See how they
stop every now and then to study
out their plans; how they consider
all obstacles and avoid them how
they use every leaf and stick and
straw to make wall or roof of their
galleries. But who is the foreman,
or "boss,r as men sometimes say Z
A new plan is thought of, he goes
to work upon it, the others soon
adopt the Improvements and help
the skillful inventor. They are all
as busy as possible, and yet they
work always on one common plan.
The Queen lays her eggs,the work
ers at once take care of them, run
ming with them from place TO place,
and always with some end in view
and when the baby ants come, II
YOU could look inside any busy lit
tie ant-hill, with the rising OF the
sun, you might see these careful lit
tie nurses (for 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 their way to call their young
masters from down below.
And then you would see them
tapping them with their antenn9l
which look like horns, as much as
to say. 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 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 ravs have penetrated, and
where the warmth can still reach
them, and again further below II
they think it best.
But the older ants can bear the
sun, and like TO feel its rays; and
though they are very industrious,
vet as they begin to work with the
dawn they take little rest as peo-
pie 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
young children in the East, or like
the babies which the Indian squaw
hangs on her back, or on a peg in
her tent. They have natural swad-
ding 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 trans
parent skin in which they are fold
ed. OF course you know the baby
ant begins life in an egg, which, in
couple of weeks, is hatched, and
then the nurses take them in charge,
to brush and comb and shampoo
them, and soon they are ready to be-
gin the next change.
If you could only look at these
tiny insects, (the nurses through a
microscope, sou would see on their
legs some very fine, soft hairs, which
they use as brushes, and spur close
by which, if needful, we may imag-
inc can do the work Of a comb. And
the shampooing is done by working
about, kneading and distending the
thin skin which covers their limbs
until it is ready to open and let
them 60 free. Then then these ba-
by ants wind a 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 it wonderful that these
little ants can do so much for them
selves Some hoist aloft in their
front arms, as it were, stick, or
piece of grass, two or three times
their 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 a curiously regular diminishing
curve, as if every one bore the arch
itect's elevation in his pocket.
Some of these wonderful workers
make desperate attempts TO move
heavy beams of wood, but after sn-
perhuman exertions give 1t up when
clearly beyond their strength. If a
thing. however, is within the bounds
of possibility, it is surprising with
what obstinate pertinacity they will
return to a pellet that has rolled
away from them, even TO the bot
tom of the hillock, again and again,
and begin once more to haul it up.
tugging, lifting il over stones and
sticks, tumbling owe: with their bur-
den on the other side of an obstacle
which they have scaled, and lying
for a few seconds quite exhausted,
yet never leaving hold of their bur
der, snd setting off nndauntedly as
soon as they recover breath. Occa-
sionally two or more will lend a
helping hand. but as a general rule
they prefer to work alone. The hand
OF man is considered a miracle of
art, but what of the ants six pre-
hensile feet, Indifferent organs as
they seem comparatively, to hold to
pull or lift or even 10 cling with
But what will you say, apart from
their building ability and tender
care over each other, the almost
moral elevation which is their most