Arizona republican., 1921-09-21

ant dragging a weight much greater than that of itself. Then we show a closeup of a pair of scales weighing the material. The result revealed that the ants load was about in the same proportion as a 300-p pound load carried by a 135-pound man.
 Filming an Ant War
 We also have pictures of a great ant war. We secured two distant ant colonies in solid blocks of earth. being careful to capture the queens. and transferred them to the studio table. We set the table legs in water. so they could not escape, and then ran a sash cord from one table leg to the other. This formed a bridge. That was all that was needed. In a short time. the first ant scouts were across that bridge, shifting each others colonies and on the warpath.
 These tiny warriors, you know, have an uncanny way of recognizing their friends and of immediately identifying ants from strange colo nies- A stranger thrown into a nest of ants will be almost instantly killed.
 Wild activity started up in each of the camps. While some guarded the entrance to the underground gall leries of the nests where their queens lived, other started in droves across the bridge The royal guard re- mained around the queen with their mandibles or jaws wide open, ready to defend her to the last.
 "The battle lasted several hours until the field was covered with wounded and one side finally tri- umphed. Proudly. they carried the dismembered bodies of the van quished back to their galleries to be stored for winter food. The eggs of the enemy queen were also captured and removed to the victorious camp. These eggs, We believe, are allowed to hatch out and the young are kept as slaves. At any rate, the eggs are not used as food, but are taken as part of the booty while the enemy queen is always killed. We got a charming silhouette of the last pro- cession of victors (greatly enlarged. of course) carrying their loot across the cord bridge into camp"
 Which of the zoo animals is the most dangerous to photograph" we asked.
 "The tiger is the most treacherous," replied Mir. Ditmars. but none of them is actually to be trusted. We sometimes wear protective appara- tus. The Black Mambra (see Dr. Ditmars book on reptiles) will spit poison in all directions when fright ened, which would be most dangerous if we didn't wear goggles to protect our eyes.
 T believe moving pictures are of the greatest possible value in teach ing the public natural history the zoo director concluded. T have been producing them for years and have worked out my own photographic equipment. Among other things I have found a light English make of camera most effective. The average American moving picture camera is extremely heavy and hard to move, weighing at least 125 pounds The one l use weighs 13 pounds and the tripod 15-
 ''I have made over 120.000 feet of motion picture negative. which am arranging in much the same fashion as if were writing a very elaborate book on natural history It repre- sents 12 years work. and 40 per cent of the animals contained in it will never be taken again, so fast are cer- tain species dying out"
 At this point, pr. Ditmars was in- terrupted by his pretty. young daugh- ter, who rushed into the office much excited.
 Come. Dad quick" she cried. ''The albino tortoise has his head out where's the camera"