Mr. Vernon L. Kellogg, with a child friend, were watching an ant-dragon
as he caught an ant in a sandpit-trap.
“But, see,” cried Mary, “the ant has stopt sliding. It is going
to get out!”
Ah, Mary, you are not making allowance for all the resources of
this dreadful dragon of the pit. Not only is the pit a nearly
perfect trap, and the eager jaws at the bottom more deadly than
any array of spikes or spears at the bottom of an elephant pit,
but there is another most effective thing about this fatal
dragon’s trap, and that is this: it is not merely a passive
trap, but an active one. Already it is in action. And Mary sees
now how hopeless it is with the ant. For a shower of sand is
being thrown up from the bottom of the pit against the ant and
it is again sliding down. The dragon has a flat, broad head
and powerful neck muscles, and has wit enough to shovel up and
hurl masses of dry sand-grains against the victim on the loose
slopes. And this starts the avalanche again, and so down slides
the frantic ant.--VERNON L. KELLOGG, “Insect Stories.”
(911)
=Enemies Among Animals=--See SUBTLETY AMONG ANIMALS.