The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1885-09-19
FOR OUR YOUNG FOLKS.
The AMI.
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;
Little head, little wit
Great head, not bit!'
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 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 them; how they use every leaf
| and stick and straw to make a 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 improvement and help the skilful
III NAlbCA' llC arc on Us BllSN us DOS-
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 (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 tap
ping them with their antennm. which
look like horns. as much as 10 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-hilI, 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 peg in her tent.
They have natural swaddling clothes,
for they are wrapped up so tightly in
their laryal 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 though a micro
scope, you would see on their lees
some very fine soft hairs, which they
use as brushes, and a spur close bv,
which, if needful, we may imagine can
do the work of Il comb. And the sham
pooling is done by working about,
kncading and distending TIE 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
90 to sleep, to wake up full-groTn ants,
without guide, Overseer and ruler"
except the tender services of the nurse
Ism t it wonderful that these little ants
can do 50 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 all, and
yet, while the whole world is wrapped
in lazy content in the summer wealth
er they are always latoring very hard
for the whole community And if, per-
chance, their little citadel is impaired,
as is often the case, they repair the
ruin with the utmost neatness and dis
patch.
Did you ever see an ant seize pei
let, or stone, and drag it backwards
up steep incline, using its hind legs to
cling on to rough places, often Juggling
away at Il weight far greater than that
of its own body? Some hoist aloft in
their front arms, as it We're, stick or
piece OF grass, two or three times It's
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 regu-
lar diminishing curve, as if every one
bore the architects elevation in his
pocket,
Some of these wonderful workers
make desperate attempts to move
heavy beams of wood, but after super
human eXertions give up the attempt
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 which has rolled away from
them, even to the bottom of the hillock,