ually many colonies fly up together in
the bright summer air. The wedding journey is a picnic for hungry birds.
Just think of finding such a mass of juicy morsels at one time. They fly
into the crowd and eat as many of the ants as they can. But many escape.
At last they become exhausted. The males fall to the ground and die. The
queens break off their wings, because they never need them after the
wedding journey.

"They look about for a good place to start a new home. The first thing
the queen does is to lay her eggs in a neat little pile. These soon
hatch out into larvae; tiny, worm-like grubs without any legs. Queen
ants feed their babies faithfully with nice, tender insects, which they
chew for them. Sometimes these larvae spin a tiny cocoon, in which
they lie quietly while they are being made over into ants--perhaps into
a queen, like the mother, or a male, like the father; perhaps into a
worker, which is the mainstay of the whole colony. This first family of
babies the queen mother must look out for herself, but just as soon as
the baby workers are grown up it is their turn to help her.

"The first set of workers are very small. From morning until night they
are busy. Early in the morning they must go out for food, to catch
insects for the queen's breakfast and for the queen's baby ants. To be
sure, it does not take long to prepare this meal, as it is chewed for
the babies instead of cooked. Then the house must be set to rights,
extra grains of sand must be cleared out of the paths and galleries.
Perhaps some careless little girl or boy may have stepped on the mound
around the entrance and crushed it. The workers hurry to clear away the
ruins, and soon have a new mound neatly piled up. Tell us, Jack, what
you know about these workers."

Jack's face was bright with eagerness. "Well, sir, in ant homes there
are always babies, lots of them, just as in other homes. These little
larvae must be fed often and kept clean. The workers are the nurses as
well as housekeepers. If the babies happen to be in a cool, damp part of
the house they must be carried into a warmer, drier place. So the
workers pick them up and take them out for an airing. Often they carry
the little cocoons out into the warm sunshine or move them about from
place to place. In some families of ants there are some with very big
heads and strong jaws. These are the soldiers. If there is any trouble
in their village these big-headed fellows go out as scout