f cylindrical form, rising several feet from
the surface. Others, again, prefer nesting in the trees, where they
construct large cellular masses of many shapes, suspending them from the
highest branches; while many species make their waxen dwellings in
hollow trunks, or beneath the surface of the earth. There is not a
species, however, whose habits, fully observed and described, would not
strike you with astonishment. Indeed, it is difficult to believe all
that is related about these insects by naturalists who have made them
their study. One can hardly understand how such little creatures can be
gifted with so much intelligence, or _instinct_, as some choose to call
it.

Man is not the only enemy of the ants. If he were so, it is to be feared
that these small insignificant creatures would soon make the earth too
hot for him. So prolific are they, that if left to themselves our whole
planet would, in a short period, become a gigantic ants' nest!

Nature has wisely provided against the over increase of the ant family.
No living thing has a greater variety of enemies than they. In all the
divisions of animated nature there are ant-destroyers--_ant-eaters_! To
begin with the mammalia, man himself feeds upon them--for there are
tribes of Indians in South America, the principal part of whose food
consists of dried termites, which they bake into a kind of "paste!"
There are quadrupeds that live exclusively on them, as the ant-bear,
already described, and the _pangolins_, or scaly ant-eaters of the
Eastern continent. There are birds, too, of many sorts that devour the
ants; and there are even some who make them exclusively their food, as
the genus _Myothera_, or "ant-catchers." Many kinds of reptiles, both
snakes and lizards, are ant-eaters; and, what is strangest of all, there
are _insects_ that prey upon them!

No wonder, then, with such a variety of enemies that the ants are kept
within proper limits, and are not allowed to overrun the earth.

The observations just made are very similar to those that were addressed
by Dona Isidora to the little Leona, one day when they were left alone.
The others had gone about their usual occupation of bark-cutting, and
these, of course, remained at home to take care of the house and cook
the dinner. That was already hanging over a fire outside the house: for
in these hot countries it is often more convenient to do the cooking
out-of-doors.

Dona Isidora, busy with some sewing, was sea