Читать книгу Intelligence in Plants and Animals онлайн

109 страница из 113

What clearer evidence is wanted to show the love these neuters bear the tender objects of their care? It must be plain that man bestows not half the attention upon his flocks than do these ants on theirs. It is true they do not bring them food, but that they build their homes where food, the roots of herbs and grasses, abound, there is no doubt. It may be, too, that they are carried to their pasture-grounds, when that necessity occurs, but this cannot with truth be said. When some would stray, they were returned within the fold, which shows the watch these ants do exercise.

Concluding then, this much may be averred: food, wholesome, sweet, nutritious food, the aphides supply to ants, the neuters and the young, but specially the young. And that they lead most happy, prosperous lives, the ants their masters, must surely be, or looks deceive.

ssss1

No more remarkable creature exists, perhaps, than the little Brachinus fumans, which is so very common in the early spring. Damp situations are affected by it, but it is seldom met with except by insect-hunters, for it conceals itself generally under stones, as many as a half-dozen individuals often being found in company in a single locality. Banks of tidal rivers afford excellent hunting-grounds in England for Brachinus, but in America low, dank woods and borders of streams are the places where one must look to discover its presence.