For a permanent nest, it is necessary to secure a queen, which lays all the eggs for the colony. She may be recognized by her larger size and may sometimes be found in a nest under the stones. However, it is so difficult to obtain a queen that I more often bring in the young and the workers; the latter will be content as long as they have the babies to feed and bring up; when finally this is accomplished, I usually take my colony back to its nest in the field, where it is made most welcome. This may seem sentimental, but after you have watched these little people working so hard and taking such devoted care of their baby sisters and doing so many wise things in their home, you will be loth to let the tiny creatures die of discouragement because they have nothing else to do, and you will be still more loth to let them loose to scatter, bewildered and helpless, over a strange earth. However, I have to be very careful and mark the nest to which they belong, for if I should put them near another colony, my poor captives would soon die inglorious deaths. Food which we provide for the ants in captivity should be varied and should be put on the island, rather than in the nest as we may thus be able to better clean away the refuse. Crackers or bread soaked in sweetened water, sponge cake, berry-jam, sugar, bits of raw meat, yolks of hard boiled eggs crushed, freshly killed insects or earth-worms, all may prove acceptable to our little friends. Their food may be soft but should not be in a fluid state. QUESTIONS ABOUT ANTS. _If you have not made an ant-nest and observed the ant as indicated, make some field observations. These may be made with the naked eye, or with a tripod lens. Such a lens costs about thirty-five cents._ 1. Have you ever seen an ant-hill? If so, describe it. 2. Do all ants build mound nests? 3. In what situations have you found ant-nests? 4. How many kinds of ants do you know? 5. Have you ever seen winged ants? If so, describe the experience. 6. What is the reason for a winged form of ants? 7. Have you observed ants meet and "converse" with each other? If so, how did they do it? 8. Have you seen the ants carrying their young? If so, how do they do it? 9. If you have made an ant-nest, tell what you have seen going on within it. 10. Tell any experiences you have had with ants, that show their courage, energy or cleverness. [Illustration: _Fig. 156. Uncovered ant-nest, viewed from above, looking through the glass ceiling._ _The white pieces around the edges and at the center are strips of canton flannel, forming walls and partition to the nest. Note the doors at the lower left and upper right hand corners and at lower end of the partition. The piece of blotting paper in the chamber at the left chanced to have a picture of an eagle upon it. The small white objects are pupæ, assorted in heaps._] ANTS AND THEIR HERDS.[28] [28] Home Nature-Study Course, Vol. V, No. 8, May, 1904.