Are They Useful ?
Many a gardener has asked petulantly what my corre- spondent asks: What is their place in the economy of nature? It is a question asked with yet more force by the Australian, who must build his country houses on ant-proof pillars. The ant's place presumably is to enjoy its own life and escape its many enemies. On one lawn, though it is within the pale of a little township, a green woodpecker comes every morning for no other purpose than to devour ants; and there is no food that birds, especially in my experience partridges, are so fond of as the so-called eggs of ants. Does this indicate their place in the economy of nature ? The ants seem to know the danger. Is there any spectacle of energy in nature more notable than the activities of an ant com- munity when the heap is cut open ? New nurseries are made and every pallid infant carried below and out of sight with a fury of speed scarcely conceivable. This is done, too, not coldly in the common way of instinctive action but with an appearance of extreme agitation and a host of false and aimless runnings to and fro.
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