I have an ant-nest on my table as I write, shown in Fig. 156. Instead of matches to keep the two pieces of glass apart I have a narrow strip of canton flannel glued around the edge of the glass floor except for two little doors at the opposite corners; there is also a narrow strip of cloth partitioning the chamber into two rooms with a door at one end. One room I left empty and in the other I placed a bit of blotting paper which I keep damp by occasionally adding a few drops of water. The nest is placed upon a piece of plank 18 inches square. Around the plank near the edge is a groove about an inch deep made with a chisel and kept full of water, so that my ants have a castle with a moat. It was necessary to paint this bit of plank thoroughly, above and below, to keep it from warping. [Illustration: _Fig. 155. Ant-nest, on a piece of plank, which has a moat near its edge to confine the insects._] The ants in my nest I found on a hillside beneath a stone; they are brownish with yellow legs and a little less than a quarter of an inch in length. They were stupid at first and would not discover the chamber prepared for them, but persisted in hiding their young under bits of earth which were brought in with them. So I made a scoop of a sheet of writing paper and with it placed a heap of the young, with a few of the nurses, in the empty chamber, then put on the glass ceiling and cover and left them. In a few hours the whole colony had moved into this chamber, but evidently it was not humid enough for the health of the young, and by the next morning the pupæ and larvæ and eggs were all in the other chamber arranged around the edges of the blotting paper. What I have seen of interest in this nest on my table would fill a small volume, if written out in detail. Just now a worker approached a pupa, that appears through the lens like a little bag of meal tied at one end with a black string; she examined it carefully with her antennæ and concluded it needed to be moved, and, though it is as large as she, picked it up in her jaws and carried it to a position which she regarded as more favorable. Then she approached a larva which looks like a little crook-neck squash, inquired as to its needs with her antennæ and then cleaned it with her tongue, as a cat licks a kitten, and fed it. Her next duty was to pick up a whole bunch of little white oblong eggs and scurry off with them to get them out of the light. Then she stopped to help another worker to straighten out the soft legs and antennæ of a pale, new sister that was just emerging from the pupa skin. By the time I had seen as much as this I felt it my duty to replace the cover, as the light greatly disturbs the little captives. It is said that if a yellow glass be used for the upper piece, the ants feel that they are in darkness, and their actions may be watched constantly without disturbing them.