When the nest is torn in any way certain soldiers and workers, apparently specialized for this particular job, rush to the scene. The soldiers arrange themselves to protect the workers. These first try to pull the two edges of the rent together. If the gap is too wide for a single insect to reach the other side and secure it with her mandibles a living chain is formed, sometimes as much as six ants long. One holds another in front of her with her mandibles, the second similarly holds a third, and so on until the other side is reached. Hours sometimes are required before the edges of the tear can be brought together and held in contact. Then several other workers appear, each carrying a larva head upwards. These little worms are carried back and forth like a shuttle, spinning the threads which are pushed through needle holes made by the workers until the rent is securely patched. _Fiend Symphonies of the Jungle_ Out of green jungle depths at sunrise rises the choral hymn of the damned. It is a symphony of earth’s evil, of ancient dinosaurs and flying reptiles, of vampires and witches. It comes from the throats of jet-black, long-bearded, fiend-like creatures wearing red shawls. They are the howler monkeys. The world’s loudest-mouthed bluffers and braggarts are these dwellers in the high treetops. They swear in an ancient tongue evolved over centuries for the effective cursing of hovering white hawks, black vultures and lurking wild cats. Now they curse, loudly and most profanely, airplanes which sweep low over Panama and Costa Rican jungles. They have not found it necessary to invent any new expressions to convey their contempt for the new monsters of the skies. Their voices are their only weapons. These have proved quite effective throughout the lifetime of the race. The howlers have been able to threaten their enemies with perdition so convincingly that these enemies have believed the threats. Largely as a result, the big black monkeys have been left alone as the dominant animals of the weird, perilous green world at the top of the jungle. They never have had to fight with fists, claws or teeth. All they have done—all it has been necessary to do—is talk about it.