[Illustration: AN OCEAN GARDEN.]
NATURE READERS
SEASIDE AND WAYSIDE
No. 2
BY
JULIA McNAIR WRIGHT
So he wandered away and away
With Nature, that dear old nurse,
Who sang to him, night and day,
The songs of the universe.
--LONGFELLOW, _Birthday Poem for Agassiz_.
D. C. HEATH & CO., PUBLISHERS
BOSTON NEW YORK CHICAGO
SEASIDE AND WAYSIDE NATURE READERS.
BY JULIA McNAIR WRIGHT.
Seaside and Wayside Nature Reader, No. 1.
Describes Crabs, Wasps, Spiders, Bees, and some Univalve Mollusks.
Seaside and Wayside Nature Reader, No. 2.
Describes Ants, Flies, Earthworms, Beetles, Barnacles, and Star-fish.
Seaside and Wayside Nature Reader, No. 3.
Has chapters on Plant-life, Grasshoppers, Butterflies, and Birds.
Seaside and Wayside Nature Reader, No. 4.
Has chapters on Geology, Astronomy, World-life, etc.
D. C. HEATH & CO., PUBLISHERS.
COPYRIGHT, 1888 AND 1901,
BY JULIA McNAIR WRIGHT.
PREFACE.
TO THE BOYS AND GIRLS:--
In this book we shall wander together a little farther, by the seaside
and by the wayside. Sometimes we shall walk on the breezy hills;
sometimes in the low, marshy places, where ferns and rushes grow.
Sometimes we shall stroll along the wayside path, where the
wild-flowers and grasses are woven into a wreath.
Sometimes we shall go to the hard, white sand, where the ocean waves
roll to our feet, and bring us shells and curious treasure from the
sea. Again, we shall go down to the still ponds, where lilies float on
the water and dragon-flies swim in the air.
Wherever we go, let us keep our eyes open and our minds awake to the
lessons of Nature. Then we shall be able to learn what beauty and
wisdom lie hid, even in such humble things as flies and worms. We shall
find much to delight us in beetles; and be as happy as kings while we
search out the secrets of airy hunters and marvellous little fishes.
J. M. N. W.
CONTENTS.
LESSON PAGE
I. A LOOK AT AN ANT 1
II. THE LIFE OF AN ANT 4
III. THE ANT’S HOME 9
IV. THE ANTS AT HOME 13
V. THE ANTS ON A TRIP 16
VI. THE FARMER ANTS 20
VII. ANTS AND THEIR TRADES 24
VIII. THE SLAVE ANTS 28
IX. WONDER ANTS 31
X. THE WAYS OF ANTS 34
XI. MR. WORM AND HIS FAMILY 39
XII. MR. EARTH-WORM AT HOME 42
XIII. MR. WORM AT WORK 46
XIV. MR. WORM’S COTTAGE BY THE SEA 49
XV. MR. WORM AT HOME 52
XVI. A LOOK AT A HOUSE-FLY 56
XVII. HOW TO LOOK AT A FLY 59
XVIII. MRS. FLY AND HER FOES 63
XIX. OF WHAT USE ARE FLIES 66
XX. A SWARM OF FLIES 68
XXI. SOME QUEER FLIES 71
XXII. IN ARMOR CLAD 73
XXIII. WHEN MR. BEETLE WAS YOUNG 78
XXIV. HOW TO LEARN ABOUT BEETLES 81
XXV. THE ROSE BEETLE 84
XXVI. PRINCES AND GIANTS 88
XXVII. THE LITTLE SEXTON 92
XXVIII. THE STORY OF THE STAG BEETLE 97
XXIX. MR. BEETLE SEEKS FOR A HOME 101
XXX. THE LITTLE WATER-MEN 105
XXXI. WHIRLIGIG BEETLES 110
XXXII. WHAT A FISHERMAN TOLD 113
XXXIII. MR. BARNACLE AND HIS SON 116
XXXIV. A FISHING PARTY 121
XXXV. A LAST LOOK AT MR. BARNACLE 125
XXXVI. FLOWERS OF THE SEA 127
XXXVII. THE LIFE OF A JELLY-FISH 131
XXXVIII. SEA-STARS 137
XXXIX. A SEA-CHANGE 141
XL. THE STAR-FISH WITH AN OVERCOAT 145
XLI. THE FLYING FLOWERS 151
XLII. UNDER THE WATER 155
XLIII. A HAPPY CHANGE 160
XLIV. THE DRAGON-FLY AND HIS COUSINS 164
XLV. THE WINGS OF THE DRAGON-FLY 167
REVIEW LESSONS 173
SEASIDE AND WAYSIDE.
LESSON I.
A LOOK AT AN ANT.
You have been told[1] that an insect is a living creature with a body
made in rings, and divided into three parts. Most insects have six
legs, four wings, and two feelers.
There is a great Order of insects which we shall call the hook-wing
family.
[Illustration: The Wasp.]
The wasp, the bee, the saw-fly, and ant belong to this family. They
are the chief of all the insects. They can do many strange and curious
things.
You will know insects of this great family by their wings. The front
wings are larger than the back ones. They fold back over them when at
rest.
In flight the upper wings hook fast to the lower.[2]
If you look carefully at some kinds of insects, you will soon think I
have told you what is not quite true. Why will you think that? You will
say to me, “The fly has two wings, and not four.” “The ant has no wings
at all.”
[Illustration: The Bee.]
Ah, but wait until you study about ants and flies, and see what you
will think then.
The mouth of all the hook-wing insects has two jaws for cutting or for
carrying things. The mouth is nearly as wide as the head.
Above the mouth are two knobs. These knobs are two big eyes, one on
each side of the head. Between the two big eyes they have some little
ones, on the top of the head.
You see insects are as well supplied with eyes as crabs are with legs.
The back part of the body of many insects is made fast to the middle
part by a small joint, or thread. That is because these insects need to
bend, or even double up, in some of their work.
[Illustration: The Fly.]
The Hook-wing Order is divided into two great kinds.
The insects of one kind carry a little saw. The others carry a sword.
The sword is a sting. The saw is to cut up leaves and wood to make nice
soft nests or houses for the eggs. The sword is to fight with, or to
kill things for food. Among the saw-carriers is the fine, long fly,
called a saw-fly. Bees, ants, wasps, and others carry the sting.
Get one of these insects, and you will see all the parts of which I
have told you. Let us first take an ant to look at.
The head of an ant seems very large for its body, and the eyes seem
very large for the head. They look as if they would be heavy for the
little ant to carry.
On the under part of the body which is next the head are set the six
legs. These legs and the feet have joints.
[Illustration: The Ant.]
On the upper side of this same second part of the body are set the
wings. There are four wings, two large and two small ones. The upper
pair are larger than the lower ones.
The third or back part of an ant’s body is made of six rings. On the
tip or pointed end of this hind part is the sting.
Now I hear you cry out, “O, my ant has no wings!” Well, let me tell you
a secret. The wings of your ant have been cut off, or unhooked, as you
shall hear by and by.
There are many families of ants. Each has its own name and its own
ways. All ants are very wise in their actions. I shall tell you
many strange things about them. Ants have always been called “the
wise insects.” Would you not like to learn about their homes, their
children, and their way of life?
Before you study the ants in any book, I wish you would go out into
your garden or into the fields. Find an ant-hill, and sit or lie by it
for an hour or so. Take some sugar or bits of cake to feed the ants.
Find out for yourselves all that you can about them. Facts that you
learn in this way will be worth very much to you. Be careful and do not
disturb the hill or alarm the ants.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Seaside and Wayside, First Book.
[2] See First Book, page 36.
LESSON II.
THE LIFE OF AN ANT.
In ant-hills we find drone ants, queen ants, and worker ants. The drone
ants have no sting and do no work. Their bodies are longer and more
slim than those of queens. The drone ants have wings.
The queen ants also have wings. They have stings, and their bodies are
round and dark.
The workers are smaller than queens and drones. They are also darker,
and have no wings and no stings. Workers are of two sizes, large and
small. They are the builders, nurses, soldiers, and servants of the
others.
[Illustration: A House in a Hill.]
In an ant-hill there may be many queens at one time. Often the
ant-queens work. They are both mothers and queens. They will also act
as soldiers. The queen ant is not like the queen bee, who will allow
no other queen to live near her. I think mother ant a better term than
queen ant.
The word “queen” may make you think that this ant rules the rest. That
is not so. Ants have no leader and no ruler. Each ant seems to act as
it pleases.
The chief work of the queen ant is to lay eggs. In a short time, out of
each egg comes a lively, hungry, little baby ant. It is called a larva.
A larva is like a small white worm.
This little being needs to be washed, fed, kept warm and dry, and taken
into the air and sun. It must be cared for, very much as the baby in
your home is cared for.
The workers, who act as nurses, are very kind to the young larvæ.[3]
How do they wash these little things? They lick them all over, as the
cat licks the kitten. They use such care that they keep them nearly as
white as snow.
The nurses feed the baby ants four or five times each day. The nurses
prepare the food in their crops, to make it soft and fit for the little
ants.
The nurses stroke and smooth the larva baby. It seems as if they patted
and petted it. When the weather is cold, they keep the larvæ in-doors.
When it is warm and dry, they hurry to carry them up to the top of the
hill. They place them there to bask in the sun. If any rain comes, or
the hill is broken, the nurses run to carry the babies to a safe place.
When the larva is full grown, it spins around itself a little fine
net, which wraps it all up. When people see these white bundles in
the ant-hills, they call them “ant-eggs.” They are not eggs. They are
pupa-cases. In them the baby ants are getting ready to come out, with
legs and wings, as full-grown ants.
The pupa-cases are of several sizes. The largest ones are for queens
and drones. The next size holds large workers; the smallest cases hold
the smallest workers.
There are often in the hills very wee ants called dwarf ants. When you
study more about ants in other books, you can learn about the dwarfs.
After the ants have been in the little cases some time, they are ready
to come out. The nurse ants help them to get free.
Many hundreds come out of the cases. They crowd the old home so full
that they can scarcely find room to move about.
Then they see the light shine in at the little gates on the top of the
hill. They feel the warmth of the sun. They crawl out.
They push upon each other. The hill is not wide and high enough for so
many uncles and cousins and sisters and brothers. They act like great
crowds in the streets at a big parade, each one struggles for his own
place.
Young ants, like young people, wish to set up for themselves in new
homes. They spread their fine wings. Off they fly! Since there is not
room in the old hill they will build a new one.
They swarm as the bees do. As they rise high from the earth, they drift
off on the wind. Very many of them tire out and die, or are blown into
the water, and are drowned. A few live and settle on places fit for a
new ant-hill.
It is the mother or queen ant who chooses the new home. When she has
found the right place, what do you think she does? She takes off her
wings, as she does not care to fly any more.
The ant does not tear off her wings. She unhooks them, and lets them
fall away, and does not seem to miss them.
FOOTNOTES:
[3] When we mean only one we say _larva_; when we mean more than one we
say _larvæ_.
LESSON III.
THE ANT’S HOME.
Ants live in nests, made in the earth. We call them ant-hills, from the
shape of the part that is above ground. It is the queen ant who begins
to build the ant-hill.
[Illustration: The New Home.]
Like the mother wasp, the ant works on her nest until enough ants grow
up to do all the work. After that, like the queen bee, she does no
work. The work ants will not allow her to go from home.[4]
[Illustration: Sappers and Miners.]
When the ant finds a place for her home, how does she take off her
wings? They would be in her way while she worked. She presses the edge
of a wing upon the ground and so pushes it up and loosens the hook,
just as you unhook a dress. Then she begins to dig. She acts at first
much as your dog does when he digs after a chipmunk or a rabbit.
The ant lays her big head close to the ground. With her fore-feet she
digs up the soil, and tosses it back between her hind legs. She digs as
her cousin, Mrs. Wasp, digs.
[Illustration: Sappers and Miners.]
She keeps waving her little feelers, as if to find out the kind of
soil. Soon she has a hole deep enough to cover her body. It is too deep
for her to throw out the dirt with her feet. Now she uses her feet, and
her jaws, also, to dig with.
Where the soil is sandy, she takes it out, grain by grain. At first,
she must back out of her hole. Soon her hall-way is so wide that she
can turn about after she has backed a few steps.
Ants are very kind to each other in their work. If they push or tread
on each other in their haste, they never fight about it.
The ants know how to work and how to rest. After a little hard work
they stop, clean their bodies, take some food, and sleep.
As the making of the hall goes on, the ants bite off with their jaws
bits of dirt, and roll them up with their feet. They soon use the hind
part of the body to press and push the earth into a firm ball. These
balls are carried out and laid by the door. By degrees the balls form
the “ant-hill.”
When the hall is two or three inches long, they make a room. Then they
make more halls and more rooms. The rooms are for eggs, for larvæ, for
pupæ,[5] and for food.
People who have studied much about ants have had them build nests in
glass jars. Thus they have been able to see how they work.
To make a room, the ants often have to stand on their hind legs, and
bite the earth off, as they reach up their heads. Sometimes the ant
lies on its side, to clean off or smooth the side wall. They have been
seen at work, lying on their backs, as men do in mines.
The jaws of the ant have tiny teeth. In old work ants the teeth are
often quite worn off. The feet and jaws of the ant are well made for
digging. The feet have small hairs. By the aid of these the ants can
run up a piece of glass, or hang on a wall, as you would say, “upside
down.”
An ant-hill is made of very many little halls and rooms. Some open into
each other; some do not. The rooms are bedrooms, nurseries, pantries,
and dining rooms. Many of the rooms are shaped like a horseshoe. Some
are round.
The ants press and knead the floors and walls to make them hard and
smooth. Sometimes they line them with a sticky soil, like paste, to
keep the earth from falling in.
Some ants seem to make a kind of glue, or varnish, with which they line
their walls.
FOOTNOTES:
[4] For Lessons on Bees and Wasps, see First Book.
[5] _Pupa_ is used when we speak of one, _pupæ_ when we mean more than
one.
LESSON IV.
THE ANTS AT HOME.
We have taken a look at the ants and have seen how the hill is made.
Let us now see how the ants live in their hill-home.
When we go to visit them, we shall find ants running all about the
hill and in the halls. These are the work ants. Some seem to stand on
the hill to watch lest any danger may come near.
When the drone ants and the queens are young, the work ants let them go
out and fly. When they go out, the drones do not often come back. They
get lost or die.
The young queens come back, except those who go off to make new hills.
But when the young queen settles down in life, to her work of laying
eggs, the workers do not let her leave the hill any more.
How do they keep her in? If she has not taken off her pretty wings,
they take them off and throw them away! If she tries to walk off, a
worker picks her up in its jaws and carries her back.
The ants are kind to their queen. They feed her and pet her, and she
becomes very lazy. She does not even care to lay her eggs in a nice
clean place.
The idle queen drops her eggs anywhere. The kind worker ants pick them
up, and take them to a soft bedroom.
When there are too many young queens in one hill, they do not have a
war, as the bees do. The workers settle the trouble, by taking off the
wings of some of the young queens, and turning them into work ants.
This is done before the queens begin to lay eggs.
New-born ants and queens, who do not go out into the sunshine, are of a
light color. The other ants are dark.
In cold, wet weather the ants stay at home. If a rain comes up when
they are out, they hurry back. Early in the day, and late in the
afternoon, they all seem to be very busy. In the hot hours of the day
they stay in the hill and rest.
In very hot lands the ants stir about all winter. Such ants lay up
stores of food. You shall hear of them by and by. In cooler lands,
during winter, the ants are asleep, or, as we say, are torpid.
The young swarms usually go out in autumn. I have seen very large
swarms in the spring.
Ants like sugar and honey best of all food. They get honey from
flowers, and in other ways of which I will soon tell you. Some like
seeds which have a sweet taste. For this reason they eat some kinds of
grass-seeds, oats, apple-seeds, and such things.
Ants take their food by licking it. Their little rough tongues wear
away bits of the seed; they also suck up the oil and juice. They seem
to press the food with their jaws.
It has been found out that they know how to moisten their food and make
it soft. If you give them dry sugar or cake, they turn it into a kind
of paste or honey. Then it is easier to suck or drink it up.
If you put a nest of ants with plenty of earth into a large glass
jar, and put some food near by for the ants to eat, they may settle
down in the jar, to make a home. If you cover the outside of the jar
with thick, dark paper, the ants may build close to the glass. Then,
when you take off the paper, you will be able to see the halls and
storerooms.
You might put such a jar in a safe place out of doors. Then you would
be able to study the ants, as they roam around near by, or do their
work inside the jar.
LESSON V.
THE ANTS ON A TRIP.
The round hole in the ant-hill is called the gate. The ants can close
it with a bit of stone. Often there are two, three, or even more, gates
for one ant-hill. Once I saw a hill with six large gates.
Now I will tell you of a very queer ant-hill. It was made by big black
ants, in a little valley between two hills of sand.
Into this valley had blown a very large sheet of thick paper. It had
been around a ham and was very greasy. It had lain on the ground,
crumpled up, in sun, and snow, and rain, for a year.
By that time it was hard and stiff, and weeds had grown up about it.
One day, as I was going by, I saw ants running in and out of the folds
of the paper. I took a stick and turned the top fold open like a lid.
It was full of ants and of white pupa-cases. The ants, I think, liked
the folds of the paper for halls, and the larger wrinkles for rooms.
They had found out how to have a house without much work in making it.
When I opened this paper-hill, they ran in swarms to pick up the white
bundles. Poor things! They did not know where to go for safety. So I
laid the lid of their house back in its place, and soon they were quiet
again.
Now I will tell you how ants move from one house to another. One day
I saw by my garden path a line of ants moving all one way. They were
black ants.
They went two by two, or one and two, close to each other. Every one
had in its jaws a white bundle. I found that they all came from an
ant-hill. They came up out of the gate very fast, one by one, each with
its bundle.
About two or three inches from this line of ants I saw another line.
This line went _to_ the hill, not _from_ it. They went in good order.
They had no bundles when they went into the hill; when they came out,
each had a bundle, and joined the other line of ants.
[Illustration: On the March.]
I went along with the stream of ants that had the white bundles. I
found that they went to a new hill, about thirty feet from the old hill.
There they laid down their bundles, and went back to the old hill to
bring more. The bundles lay heaped in a ring all about the gate of the
new city.
Out of this gate ran other ants in haste. They caught up the bundles,
one by one, and carried them in. In about half an hour they were nearly
all taken in, and the ants brought no more. The moving was over.
[Illustration: On the March.]
With a long blade of grass, I gently took up a little bundle, I hid it
behind a stone, some six inches off. I took three bundles and hid them,
lifting them with the tip of the grass-blade.
When all the bundles left at the hill were carried in, the ants went
down the gates. But in a minute out came three or four ants. They ran
about wildly and searched the ground.
They went in circles and looked over the ground with much care. The
circles grew wider. At last one came up behind the stone and found the
bundles.
The ant picked up one bundle and ran. Then this ant met the other ants,
and, I think, told them the news. For at once the other ants ran up to
the stone, and each took up a bundle.
Then they all ran into the hill. Can ants count? That looked as if they
knew how many bundles they had. It also looked as if they knew that two
ants must go for two bundles.
A man who took bundles from a march in this way thinks that the ants
smell the hidden bundles. He says they will not search for them if you
hide them in the earth.
LESSON VI.
THE FARMER ANTS.
You have heard of the spider which makes a den in the ground. You know
that it puts a trap-door on its den, and plants ferns on the door to
hide it.[6]
The spider turns gardener in this way, and all his plants grow well.
There is an ant that has a farm, or garden.
This ant lives in warm lands. In this country they are found in Texas,
Florida, and in one or two other warm States.
These farmer ants raise grain to eat. The grain is a kind of grass with
a large seed. It is called by some “ant-rice.”
There is also a large ant which is fond of the seeds of the sunflower.
It is said that the ants plant the sunflowers in a ring around their
hill.
[Illustration: The Little Farmer.]
The ants have not been _seen_ to carry the seed and plant it. So we
may not be _quite_ sure that they do so. Perhaps they build where they
see young sunflower plants growing.
It is possible that the ant plants seeds of some kinds. You see there
are yet in the world many things left for you to find out. It will be
well for you to keep your eyes open.
The farmer ants do not live in a small hill that you could cover with
your hand. Their hill, or disk, is sometimes flat, and sometimes high.
It is often as large as a large room. It is in the shape of a circle.
[Illustration: An Ant’s Grain Field.]
In this circle all weeds and all kinds of grasses are cut down, except
the one kind which the ants like. The earth of the disk is kept clean
and smooth. Only the seeds of the ant-rice are left to grow.
When the ant-rice is ripe, the ants pick up the seeds as they fall,
and take them into the hill to their storerooms.
It is most likely that as the ants let this ant-rice, and nothing else,
grow on their hills, it sows itself by its fallen seed.
Still the ants are real farmers, as they keep their land clean, tend
and gather the crop, store it up, and eat it.
When the ant-rice is ripe, and the seeds have fallen, the ants cut down
the old stems, and take them away. The disk is then clean for the next
crop.
The ants will go a long way from their hill to find seeds to bring
home. They like to go where horses have fed, for there they find
scattered oats. In some lands they carry off much grain from the fields.
An ant in Florida climbs the stalk of the millet and cuts off the
seeds. When ants take seeds to their hill, they husk and clean them.
They throw bad seeds away.
The ants watch the seeds, and after rains carry them out to dry in the
sun. This is because if left wet, they would sprout and grow.
Some ants also cut the seed, so that it will not sprout.
The ants eat the seeds that they gather. They also feed their young
with them.
One ant in Florida rolls up into little balls the dust, or pollen,[7]
of pine cones, and stores that up to eat.
An ant in New Jersey cuts in pieces the little new pine trees, just as
they get above the ground, and carries them to its nest.
Did you ever see the ant which likes sunflower seeds to eat? It is a
large ant, and when it has climbed to the disk of the sunflower, it
pulls out one of the ripe seeds and carries it away.
When people keep a nest of ants in order to watch their ways, they feed
them with sugar, oats, apple-seeds, and wheat.
How does the ant eat the hard grain? Its tongue is like a file, or
something like that of the little shell-fish of which I told you.[8]
The ant can rasp, file, and press the grain, so it can get at and lick
up the oil and juice.
FOOTNOTES:
[6] See First Book, page 82.
[7] See Third Book.
[8] See First Book, page 86.
LESSON VII.
ANTS AND THEIR TRADES.
Since you know that bees, ants, and wasps[9] all belong to the same
great family of living creatures, you will not wonder that many of
their ways are alike.
You know there are wasps and bees that live alone. You have read how,
in the spring, Mrs. Social Wasp builds her home and raises a brood of
babies.
These, as soon as full-grown, begin to build more rooms and nurse the
next babies. Mrs. Ant does as Mrs. Wasp does.
Mrs. Ant begins a new hill, and as her children grow they help her. But
Mrs. Ant does not often begin her hill in the spring. She chooses the
early fall to begin work.
As the eggs change into working ants, Mrs. Ant gets plenty of help in
her work.
You have seen bees swarm, and hang in a bunch, or curtain. Ants also
cling together and form balls. But this is for warmth or safety. It is
called “snugging.” In some lands, in times of flood, ants form balls as
large as your play ball. Thus they can float on the water, and do not
drown.
As Mrs. Wasp makes paper, so Mrs. Ant can make a thin paper, for her
nest. But it is poor paper, not so good as Mrs. Wasp makes. Mrs. Wasp
is the chief of the paper-makers.
I told you how one Mrs. Bee cuts leaves to line her nest. So one Mrs.
Ant does. With cut leaves she lines a neat little nest. As the spider
makes a fine spun ball to put her babies in, there is an ant that makes
a woolly nest.
You have read of the Tower Spider, that builds a neat tower of sticks,
straw, and grass over her nest. There is an ant that thatches its hill
in much the same way.
There is a brown ant that is a mason. She makes her nest of little
balls of mud, laid up like bricks in a wall.
Then there is a carpenter ant, as there is a carpenter bee. These
carpenters cut their way into trees and logs. These ants hollow out the
inside of a tree, or beam, until it is ready to fall to pieces. In this
way they do much harm.
Besides their other trades, the ants know the trade of war. There are
soldier ants. Ants are mild and kind to each other while at work. But
they are brave, and have armies for war.
It is odd to see how much ant ways and ant soldiers are like human ways
and human soldiers.
The ants make war to get slaves, or servants. I will tell you more of
that in the next lesson. They also make war to get cows, as you will
hear by and by. They seem to have some other reasons for war.
When the ant army marches, it keeps in line and order. It seems to have
captains to rule and lead it. Scouts go before to seek out the way.
The ant-hill has some soldiers for sentries, to see that no danger
comes near. When a work ant gets into trouble, it will run to a soldier
for help.
The soldier ants do not appear to be cross. They have very large heads,
as if they wore big hats. Some of them have smooth heads, and some
hairy heads. They eat much and love to sleep.
The soldier ants do not do much work. They rouse up only for a battle.
In an ant-hill, the soldiers are larger, and often more in number, than
the other ants.
The workers are the smallest ants in a hill. There are fewer queens
than any other kind, except after most of the drone ants go off and
die. At that time there are very few drones.
In a battle, two ants will often cling to each other by their jaws,
until both die. The usual way in which an ant soldier kills a foe is by
cutting off the head.
Sometimes the battle ends without any killing. At other times the ants
are very fierce, and large numbers are cut to pieces.
When strange ants get into a hill, sometimes they are driven out;
sometimes they are killed; sometimes they are treated kindly.
I put a black ant into the gate of a city of brown ants. You should
have seen how they drove him out! He ran as if he were wild with fear.
Three or four brown ants came after him to the edge of their hill.
But though some strange ants are cast out so fiercely, there are two or
three kinds of beetles which go into ant-hills and live with the ants.
The ants do not harm them in any way. You shall hear about that when we
have some lessons about beetles.
FOOTNOTES:
[9] For Lessons on Wasps, Bees, and Spiders, see First Book.
LESSON VIII.
THE SLAVE ANTS.
[Illustration: The Parasol Ants.]
Now I must tell you about the slave ants and their owners. The chief
family of the slave-making ants is called “The Shining,” for its body
shines with a gloss like varnish.
The slave-making ants and their slaves are found in many parts of the
world. The masters are of a light or red color, with a bright gloss.
The slave ants are dark or black.
In nests where slaves are held the masters never do any work. They make
war and steal slaves, or slave babies. The slave ants do all the work.
If a war rises, they also fight for the hill and their owners.
The army of the slave makers will march to the hill of a tribe of ants
which they wish to seize for slaves. They carry off the pupa-cases,
where the little new ants are getting legs and wings.
These baby ants are taken to the hill of the owners and brought up with
their own young. No slave-ant eggs are laid in a hill, for the queens
lay all the eggs, and the queens are not slaves. The slaves are stolen
when they are eggs, or larvæ.
The owners seem to be very kind to their little slaves, and as the
slaves grow up and fill the hill they seem to do very much as they
please.
The slaves build new hills and take their owners to live in the new
home. If a mistress ant wishes to wander off her hill, her slaves drag
her back. If she does not wish to move to her new home, her slaves
carry her off, all the same.
The slave-owning ants walk about their hill in an idle way. If war
comes, then they fight bravely.
The owners do not build the house, nor nurse their babies, nor feed
themselves. Often they do not even clean their own bodies. They leave
all these duties to the slaves. The slaves feed their owners, and brush
and clean them, as a servant cleans his master’s coat. When the ants
are to make a move, the slaves pick up their masters, and carry them
away.
How can they do that? The ants carry all burdens in their jaws. The
slave and the master lock their jaws, the owner curls up the back of
her body, and the slave carries her off.
The grip of an ant’s jaw is very strong. She can carry things much
larger than her own body.
There is an ant which uses the pine needles for food. She carries the
bits of pine laid over her back much as a man carries a gun. There is a
little groove in this ant’s head, where the bits of pine rest. I have
seen very large hills covered with carefully cut bits of pine needles.
I think they have been sucked dry and then cast out.
There is an ant called the “parasol ant,” because it cuts off tiny bits
of leaf, and carries them along. Each ant holds a piece of leaf over
its head, like a parasol.
An army of this kind on the march looks very funny. These ants line
their nests with bits of leaf, to keep the dirt from falling in.
These parasol ants are very large. Their nests cover a large space. The
bits of leaf are cut about the size of a dime. The ants carry them in
their jaws, each piece by a little end left for a stem.
We have some parasol ants in this country, in Florida and Texas, and
there are many of them in South America.
LESSON IX.
WONDER ANTS.
You may perhaps read of what are called “Termites,” or White Ants. You
must not think that these are true ants, for they are not. They belong
to another Order of insects. They have four wings all of the same size.
But true ants have one pair of wings smaller than the other.
The white ants live in the ground and also in trees. They do much harm
by gnawing wood and trees. They swarm into houses, and eat the tables
and chairs and such things. They eat all kinds of food. They are much
like real ants in their ways. There are many of them in our country.
Now you must hear about the ants that keep cows. I have told you that
ants like honey. They take all their food by lapping and sucking it.
They suck honey from flowers.
If you look at the plants in the garden or house, you may see on the
leaves some very small green things, that seem to eat the leaves. Your
mother will tell you these are “plant lice,” and that they spoil her
plants.
The name of this little insect is Aphis. That is a very pretty name.
The aphis is very small, and is often of the color of the leaf it feeds
on.
This wee thing can make honey in its body much as bees do. But the
aphis does not store up the honey; it drops it on the leaf as it feeds.
This is called “honey dew.”
The ants eat the honey dew from the leaves, and they know that it comes
from the aphis. They stroke and tap the aphis with their feelers, so
that more dew will be let fall.
Have you seen the milkmaid go from cow to cow, and fill her pail with
milk? So the ants go from one aphis to another, until they get all the
honey they want.
The ants can carry home this honey, and give it to other ants. The
nurse ants will carry it to the baby ants. The workers take it to the
queens, owners, and soldiers.
The aphis is called the “ant’s cow.” A hill of ants will seem to own a
herd of these wee green cows. They go to them on their leaf, and get
the honey. They know and claim their own cows. It is just like having a
drove of cows in pasture, as the farmer does.
You know that people often keep cows in stables and feed them there.
The ant has this way also. There is a kind of aphis that loves the
dark and feeds on roots. Some ants keep a herd of these, hidden in the
ground. They pet, stroke, and clean them to get their honey dew.
Ants have been seen to fight for days over a herd of aphis-cows.
One hill of ants had no cows, and they tried to steal the cows that
belonged to another hill. After four days the lady that watched them
got twenty cows, and gave them to the hill that had none. Then the war
ended.
The ants which got the new cows seemed very glad. They licked and
petted the cows, and put them in a safe place. They took honey from
them and fed the soldiers.
This seems just like a fairy tale. But it is quite true. All these
things can be seen if you look out for them. But you must be patient
and anxious to learn.
In warm summer days, when your mother tells you that it is too hot to
run about much, what will you do? Why not make a tent of an umbrella,
placed near an ant-hill, and watch these pretty and curious little
creatures?
LESSON X.
THE WAYS OF ANTS.
I have told you that ants like honey and sweets. They will also suck
the juices and soft parts of many other kinds of food. Some ants eat
nearly everything that can be eaten.
Almost all ants will eat other insects, and suck the eggs or pupæ of
other insects. This habit makes ants very useful. Certain worms and
bugs that destroy orange trees and cotton plants are killed by ants.
Ants also eat other insects that injure men. If a coat that has these
on it is laid near an ant-hill, in an hour or two the ants will have
made it quite clean.
You have seen a fly sit and clean her body and wings. She does this
by drawing her feet over her head and body. So you have seen the cat
clean her fur coat with her paws and tongue. The ant washes or brushes
herself in just such a way.
The ant is very neat and clean in her habits. She takes many naps in a
day, and after each nap she brushes herself. She brushes herself tidy
after work and after taking food.
The action of the ant in cleansing herself is much like that of the
cat. The ant has on her fore-leg a little comb, shaped like your thumb.
With this she strokes and combs all dust and dirt from her body.
If you watch an ant as she dresses herself, you will see that she draws
her fore-foot through her mouth. This is to clean the comb and to make
it moist, so that it will do its work well.
[Illustration: Queer Capers.]
The ant has also little brushes on her other feet; so you see there is
no reason why she should not keep herself very trim and tidy.
[Illustration: Queer Capers.]
Ants are very neat about their nests. They carry out all husks of grain
and seeds and all dead bodies. They carry these quite off their hill.
I knew of an ant’s nest that had been set on a post in water. It was
kept clean by the ants. They soon learned to drop all refuse over into
the water. That is as the sailor does, when he tidies his ship.
Ants bury their dead. When an ant dies, some of the other ants pick
up the body to carry it off and bury it. They do not like to put dead
bodies near their hill. The ants will carry the dead ones round and
round, till they find a good place for them.
A lady who spent much time in the study of ants said that the
slave-owning ants do not bury the slaves with the masters. They put the
dead slaves in one place and the owners in another.
Ants will now and then change their home. They leave an old hill and
make a new one. When they do this, if some of the ants do not seem
ready to leave the old hill, the others drag them off by force.
Most ants have very good eyes, and can see above ground and under
ground. But there is one kind of ant that is blind.
Ants can bite with their sharp jaws. They also have a sting. They
seldom use it if they are let alone. Some ants have quite a sharp
sting. The sting is on the hind part of the ant’s body. Their sting is
made in three parts. There is the sack for poison, the needle which
gives the prick, and the case to keep the needle or prickle in. This
needle, of a light color, is like a little thorn.
The ant seizes with its jaws the part which it wishes to sting. Then it
lifts its body up on the hind legs, and swings its sting part under,
so that it can drive the sting into the place held by the jaws. The
sting does not do much harm to people, but will no doubt kill ants and
other insects.
Ants make also a kind of juice called “ant acid.” They can throw this
about when the hill is disturbed. This acid must be pretty strong. It
will make a dog sneeze and rub his nose. The ant uses it to keep dogs,
mice, beetles, and such things, away from the ant-hill.
I have told you that some ants harm trees and plants by gnawing or
cutting them. It is only fair now to tell you that ants help plants
to grow. As they creep into flowers for honey, they carry about from
flower to flower the dust or pollen which makes new seeds grow. This
dust sticks to the ant’s body, and what is taken from one flower is
carried to another. Bees also carry pollen.
Thus, you see that the ants help the flowers, which in their turn give
food to the ants. But, of course, the ants do not know what they are
doing for the flowers.[10] Nor do the bees know that they help the
flowers. The bees and ants do not know that pollen sticks to them, to
be carried about.
These lessons about the ant contain only a few of the many things
that can be said of this insect. I hope you will like the ants well
enough to get other books about them, and study and watch the ants for
yourselves.
FOOTNOTES:
[10] See Lesson XIII.
LESSON XI.
MR. WORM AND HIS FAMILY.
One day I saw a boy making a hole in the ground, and he dug out a worm.
I said to the boy, “What can you tell me about worms?”
The boy said, “Worms are long, soft things, alike at both ends. If you
cut one in two, each end goes off, and makes a whole new worm. They
have no heads and no feet and no feelings, and are no good but for
fish-bait.”
The boy thought he knew all about worms. But really he knew very little
about them. All that he had told me was wrong.
Worms belong to the great class of ringed, or jointed, animals. These
creatures have bodies made in rings or joints.
Let us take a careful look at our humble friend, the earth-worm.
He is a long, round, soft, dark, slimy thing, and you say, “He is alike
at both ends.”
Is he? Let us see. His body is made of from one hundred to two hundred
rings. These rings are smaller toward the two ends of the body, which
are the head and tail.
[Illustration: Like and not Like.]
Each ring has on it tiny hooks, too small for you to see. These hooks
take the place of the jointed feet that his cousins have. The feet on
a caterpillar will show you about how these hooks would look, if you
could see them.
By these hooks the worm moves along, and digs his way in the ground.
Mr. Worm can hold so fast to his den or hole, that you have hard work
to pull him out.
Have you seen Mr. Robin brace his feet and tug with all his might, when
he pulls out a worm? The worm is holding fast by his hooks.
You see the hooks are Mr. Worm’s feet. Let us now look for his head.
You have five senses. You can hear, see, feel, smell, taste. The worm
can feel and taste. Some think he can smell some things. Some say that
he cannot see or hear. I think that he hears, but maybe what makes him
come up to look about is not hearing, but feeling a jar on the ground.
Why do we say he has a head, if he has no eyes nor ears nor nose? We
say he has a head because he has a mouth and a brain.
His mouth has two lips. The upper lip is larger than the under. He
has no teeth. In the back of his head, not far from his mouth, is his
brain, or nerve-centre.
The worm is the only jointed animal that has red blood. Mr. Worm is
dark-colored because his body is full of the earth which he swallows.
If you keep him out of the earth for a while, his skin will get pale
and clear. Then you can see his red blood run in two long veins. He
needs fresh air to keep this red blood pure. He dies very soon if he is
shut up in a close box or case.
LESSON XII.
MR. EARTH-WORM AT HOME.
I told you the earth-worm has two veins. One runs down his back, the
other runs along the under side of his body.
There are tiny holes, like pin pricks, in his body. These are for the
air to reach his blood, to keep it red and pure.
In his body poor Mr. Worm has something that no other creature has. He
has two bags or sacks for lime. This is in some way to help him with
his food.
Mr. Worm has no teeth with which to grind his food. He has inside his
body small bits of stone. These are as small as grains of sand. They
are instead of teeth to grind his food.
When you study birds you will find that, like Mr. Worm, they have no
teeth. They, too, carry little millstones inside their bodies.
The little bags of lime help to grind or change the worm’s food in some
way, not yet well known.
The soft body of the worm will stretch like India-rubber. It will hold
a great deal of food.
Now you see that Mr. Worm is _not_ alike at both ends. One end has the
head, the stomach, the parts that serve for a brain, and a heart.
The hooks begin at the fourth ring behind the head. Look at the worm
when he lifts his head, and you will see his mouth.
The tail end has very strong hooks with which to hold fast to his cell.
This tail end is also his trowel, or mould, a tool with which this
poor, ugly worm helps to build the world.
Ah! now I have told you a great thing, a strange thing. Is it true that
the feeble, useless worm helps to build the world? Where is that boy
who knew so much about worms?
But before you hear how the worm helps to build the world, let us go
back to what the boy said. He said, “If you cut the worm in two, each
end will go off and be a whole worm.”
That is not true of the worm. When the worm is cut in two, the parts do
not die at once. As there are hooks and rings on each part, they each
can move off.
It is thought that if the fore part is left safe, the cut can close up,
and the worm can still live. A new tail may grow upon the front part,
as Mr. Crab’s new claw or eye-peg grows.
The hind part cannot live and grow. It cannot get a new mouth or heart,
so it can take no food, and have no blood. It soon dries up and dies.
The boy told me that the worm “had no feelings.” A worm can feel. The
sense of touch is the best sense it has. Put your finger on its body,
and see it move and shrink.
If the worm can hear, the organs that serve for ears have not yet been
found. It crawls up as you come near, and pokes its head out of its
hole and wags it to and fro. It has felt the jar of your steps.
The worm cannot see. Creatures that live under ground have but little
use for eyes. Fishes that live in dark cave-rivers have no eyes. If the
worm moves from the light and hides from it, it is because it feels the
action of light on its skin. It does not see the light.
What does Mr. Worm eat? Some tell you that he eats dirt. It is true
that he fills his body full of earth. That is to carry it to the top
of the ground. Mr. Crab has claws and legs to bend into the shape of a
basket. Poor Mr. Worm has no arms, legs, or claws, so he must make a
basket of himself.
Suppose you should be sent for fruit, and turn yourself into a basket
in that way! Your mamma might find fault. She would not wish you to act
like a worm.
It is true that the worm may find a little food in the earth which he
swallows. But the chief food of the worm is dead leaves and stems of
plants. It does not care for fresh, live leaves and stems and roots.
The worm also likes meat,--fat, raw, or cooked. Worms will gnaw or suck
the bodies of dead worms. We say worms _gnaw_. As they have no teeth,
they do not really gnaw. They pinch off what they eat.
Worms like onions and cabbage best of all food. They need plenty of
water, and must live in damp places. They soon die if they are put into
water. They choke as a fish chokes if kept out in the air.
When the worm gets food into its mouth, the rings of its body begin to
move out and in. They look as if they were opening and shutting. By
this motion they press the food down into the body.
When the worm wants to move, it stretches out its body to its full
length. Then it takes hold of the earth with its hooks. Next it draws
up its body, and so moves on. This is a wave-like motion, you see.
Watch it, and you will see that it travels with a motion like waves.
If you wish to find worms to study, you must seek for them in early
morning or late in the evening. You will be likely to find them when
all the earth is moist with dew, or when it is raining. They avoid heat
and sun.
Worms hurry to the surface of the soil to enjoy the falling rain. When
there is a long, dry time, the worms go down deeper and deeper into
the earth. You cannot find them when you dig for them. They need to
keep down where the earth is moist, soft, and cool.
LESSON XIII.
MR. WORM AT WORK.
Worms are found in all parts of the world. I have told you that they
help to build the world, and make it fit for the home of man.
Man cannot live without food. He gets his food from the earth. The
worms help to prepare the earth to bring forth the food of man.
Oh, this is very strange, that humble and dirty worms can be a help to
man! Man is the highest of all animals. Worms are nearly the lowest.
And can worms help man?
Now let us see how this is done. The worms live under ground. They make
long, winding halls, like streets, some inches below the top soil.
These halls, or little tunnels, help to keep the earth loose, so that
the fine roots of the plants can grow well in it.
These tunnels also serve to help the air move more easily through the
soil. By their constant motion below the surface the worms till the
earth, as rakes, spades, or ploughs till it above.
All this is of great use, and people say, “Many worms, rich land.” Now
and then you will hear, on the other hand, that the worms have eaten up
the seed sown. Or, people say the worms have bitten off the roots of
the plants. Some say that the worms cut the vines below the soil.
You need not think the earth-worms did that. Not at all! The
earth-worms never behave so ill. The “worms” that people mean, when
they speak of this harm done, are the grubs or larvæ of some insects,
as of the daddy-long-legs and others.
These grubs and cut-worms will eat living plants, but Mr. Worm likes
dead leaves and stems best. He wants his food made soft by decay.
Now we come to the chief work of the true earth-worms. When they make
their halls and houses, they fill their long bodies with the earth.
Some say it is their food.
Mr. Darwin says, “Oh, no! they fill their bodies with earth just to
get it out of their way.” If they get any food from the dirt it is not
much. They turn themselves into baskets to carry the dirt out from
their houses.
The worms work, work, work all the time, taking out earth, and carrying
it to the top of the ground.
There they pile it in heaps, called worm-casts. Each piece is the shape
of a small worm.
The earth takes this shape as the worm presses it out of its long,
soft body. Early in the day you can find these worm-casts over all the
garden paths. So you can after a rain. Go and look for them.
There are so many worms busy all the time that each year they bring up
tons of earth. This shows you the power that is in small, weak things.
In India there are worm-casts in heaps six inches high.
The worms make the earth fine and loose, by pinching it off with their
mouths. Then they bring this rich soil from below, and lay it on top,
and so on and on.
It is only some twenty years since this work of worms was known. At
first people said, “Oh, no, no! It cannot be that little, soft worms
could cover a great field, some inches deep, with new earth.” But it
was shown to be quite true.
Fields once stony and hard have become rich and fine. Things grow now
where once scarcely anything would grow. Ashes and gravel, once on top,
go two or three inches below.
All this is done by the busy worms. That is why I said that you could
call the tail end of the worm the tool with which he helps to build the
world.