Weihaiwei, July 13—Some time ago I began to watch Carpenter Ants with a view to testing the findings of the University professors who classified the workers as Large,'Interme. diate and Small (Note: the difference in size is not due to growth—each is a separate type) and gave the main duties of the Small a: foraging, carrying, building, milking aphids and tending young: my results agree almas! entirely with the professors, except that I find the Small are seldom, if ever, permitted to "carry" in the sense of bringing in food, and so I exclude from their duties that of foraging. I agree that the Large (soldiers) forage, fight, guard and regurgitate (to feed others) but I find that their special duties, outside soldiering, are to cut up large carcasses ard to carry heavy loads (of food): I find that the Intermediates are the main carriers of food and should be given at least "three stars" in the foraging department. Having placed deceased flies (victims of the domestic swatter) near the nest-hole, I found the Large would ignore them, even if they ran into them; Intermediates carried the bodies off and returned from the hole within a few seconds to dump the discarded wings; Smalls were chased away every time they attempted to carry a fly. In the case of larger carcases such as bees, beetles, stink-bugs etc., Large were called in to remove wings and hard parts and to assist the Intermediates in carrying—also to tear off and carry portions of the body to lighten the load. Smalls were kept working the whole time carrying out mud from the nest to enlarge the subterraneon galleries. While conducting these experiments I watched the ants as they. wandered round the fruit trees and flowers in search of small prey, and I cannot see that they do any harm to fruit or flowers. Their powers of destruction seem to be reserved for fighting other ants who come to steal or destroy....and they cannot really be blamed for that.
Bossy had been taken up to see his new twin sisters, "Aren't you glad now," said his father, "that you prayed for a baby sister?"
"Yes," replied Bobby, grinning, "and aren't you glad I stopped when I did?"
Blushing He was a strict teetotaller, but, unfortunately, had a very red nose. One day a customer said to him: "I say, old man, what is wrong with your nose?"
"Nothing at all," replied the red-nosed one. "It is simply blushing with pride because it does not stick itself into other people's affairs,"
"You Can't Print That"
A NEW reporter had been sent along to interview a famous boxer. Presently he staggered into the editor's office.
"Well," snapped the chief, "did you get anything?"
"Yes, sir," moaned the other, pointing to two black eyes, "these!"
"We can't print those!" said the editor. "What did he say to you?"
"You can't print that, either," was the reply.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.