Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-11-28


| But 1t Is the little land leech scarcely
| more than an inch long, whose hunger
! for human blood has made it an i'm
| portant factor in the military and po-
litical history Of the island,
zone meets It everywhere on the
island where the rainfall is sufficient. -
Wood reports. ut rs an agile and ex-
ceedingly nimble little animal. Attached
| to the top OF grass stem or exposed
leaf, it lies in wait, waving about in
the air with eyes and smelling apparatus
alert, awaiting the passage of its warm
blooded victim. The bite is not pain
| flll, but the incision bleeds freely. The
chief danger of the bites It from the
! several hundred teeth Of this wicked
little creature, with the secondary In
fections, ulcers, ETC., that follow the
triangular incisions made by them.
Multitudes of Leeches.
zone Of the chief defenses of the
ancient Kandyan kingdom for 800 years
after the subjugation of the rest OF the
island was the vast multitude of
leeches that infested the wet, impass.
sble mountain jungle that lay between
the seaboard and Handy, and through
which an invading army must march.
AS one Of many such incidents, in 1853
AD.: q force Of Portuguese soldiers on
SlAClI9 way W htLttCh sttaE nALlQydQ AIuB
were encamped In the midst Of rank
myriadS Of leeches. Clothes afforded
no protection against their. Yeedle-like
| bodies. Satiated, they dropped In
streams Of blood from the eyelids and
/ ears of the men, and had to be plucked
out Of their very gums as they ate their
food. Rest was out of the question,
for the voracious animals swarmed on
all sides In ever-increasing numbers.
The expedition failed of its objective"
Mr. Wood encountered the great red
ant while searching for nests of. the
Indian tailor bird, an elaborate struc-
ture which bears evidence of actual sew
ing and stitching. The red ant builds
a very similar home. but, as described
by Wood. "he does not sew but CLUES
the edges of leaves together, afterWard
lining the cavity With a kind of self
| made, transparent paper, which is also
| used for joining the leaf edge. The
object Of their house building is to form
globular casing, IN which the breeding
cells, food, ETC., are stored. First, sew
eral Ar1ts. stand on the margin of one
edge in their f11andibles, draw 1t to the
border on which they are standing.
other workers on the inner, or opposite,
surfaces paste the appropriated mar
gins together
IF the neishboring leaf is too far
away. the ants make g. chain of their
bodies to reach the desired contiguous
blade, which is then drawn up and
cemented. This work is 30 thoroughly
done that long after the leafy materials
have dried and are partly disintegrated
the original structure holds its shape
and a good deal Of force is required to
tear it apart.
THE red leaf ant is one Of the largest
and most ferociotlS of its order. They
may be said to be armed with veritable
| teeth. No native will ascend a tree for
coconuts when their are active colon
les OF red ants on trunks or branches"
Snakes Little Feared.
While recounting a verified instance
Of a king cobra actually chasing man
| in an automobile, striking at the NOV
| ing car and trying to board It to get
at his intended victim, the Smithsonian
naturalist found little to be feared in
the poisonous snakes. But. he says, a
white man In Ceylon rarely Is bitten.
A more dangerous animal, he holds
is The rogue" elephant, which appAr-
emily has violated some law Of the herd
and Is driven into exile by the other
members
ut is nearly always q male he says
who is not allowed to join any other
| group and becomes veritable Ishmael-