Driver Ants.

Otago Witness, Issue 1834, 14 January 1887, Page 33

Driver Ants.

Tbere-are certain ants that show wonderful intelligence, and the "driver ants" hot only build boats, but launch them too ; only, these boats are formed of their own bodies. They are called '"drivers'" because of their ( ferocity. Nothing 'can stand before the attacks of these 'little*' creatures. Large pythons have been killed by them in a single night, while chickens, ''lizards, and other animals in -Western Africa llee from them in terror. To protect themselves from the heat they erect arches 1 under which numerous armies of them pass in safety. '' Sometimes the arch is made of grass and earth gummed together by some .secretion, and again it is formed by the bodies of the larger ants, hold themselves together by their strong nippers, while the' workers pass under them. At certain times of the year freshets overflow the country inhabited by the " drivers," and it is then that the ants go to sea. The rain comes suddenly,- and the walls of their houses are broken in by the flood, but instead of coming to the surface in Bcattered hundreds and being swept oft! to destruction, out of the ruins rises a black ball that rides safely on the water and drifts away. At the first warning of danger, the little creatures rush together and form a solid ball of ants, the weaker in the centre ; I often this ball is larger than a common baseball, and in this way they float about until they .lodge against some tree, upon the luanches of which they are soon safe and souud. -St. Nicholas.

The Squibkel. — Mr Ruskin says of this iutevesting 'little animal:— Now, as of all quadrupeds there is none so ugly and miser* able as the sloth, so, taking all nature, there is none so beautiful or so happy as the M|uirrel. Innocent in all his ways, harmless in his fooa,^layfiSl;'.as.a s ;titten, r but without cruelty^ andisjarp'^in^th^'^^erity ,of s*a5 *a monkey, with"tbe' grace of a bird, the little dark-eyed- miracle yef- .'the ,-forest- goes' from branch to branch; .more like' a sunbeam than a living thing.; The chamois is felow to it, and the ; panther- clrimsy. "It- haunts you, listens for you, : hides' from you; looks for you, loves 'you, as if it wore a plaything invented by the"angel that walks by your children. ' How the" Platypus Suckles its Young. — In reference; to some recent remarks upon this subj'dcfc^H.S.R., -Brisbane, has written :—: — The puzzle now seems to be to account for how theyoung platypi manage to suckle: It will be seen,' upon examination, that the bill of the platypus pyerlaps ; that is, tho top projects some djstance over the lower. This prevents it 'from being able to attach itself to the breast of the female ; and as there is no teat' whatever, not even a bare spot on the breast,- it is obvious that there must be some psjh,er means for the ,young.,to procure the milk.< t -There -is no.possible difference in theixTr^tt-thfe^breasffrom'that^dn the back, and no sign of mammary glands to be detected 'byr tlfe-'-naked; eye. However, if a female'-wIUi ' young -fs 1 taken and pressed iirinly in t;he hand, holding the belly upward, the milk will* be found to exude on to the breast 'pn, b'^h sides between, the from and back flappers [or tins. . The milk is -exceedingly rich,' and wiji'not run oft' the fur. : The mother, to. give her j'oung milk, lies on.h er back, and by .pressure of nerves' on the milk glands, causes the milk to exude on to the breast fur, whence it is, sucked up by the young. This is the true solution, proved by