Insect Adventures

ged to capture forty Bees from a nest under the eaves of my shed, and to put them one by one in screws of paper. I asked my daughter Aglaé to stay nea

times, and sometimes I forgot myself and squeezed the Bee harder than I should have. As a result, about twenty out of my forty Be

for the Bees. They must have had to fly close to the ground; th

ched home, that the Bees would be there. But Aglaé gr

llies!" I had released my insects at about two o'clock; these first arrivals had therefore flow

returned, in spite of having the wind against them, and in spite of having been taken to a place where they had almost certainly never been before. These Bees do not go far afield, for they have all the food and buil

C

find its way home. I never believed this till I saw wha

im at the end of a reed. He took it. And the mouthfuls succeeded one another to such good purpose that at last he had had enough and went, paying no attention to the "Puss! Puss!" of his compassionate friends. But after a while he grew hungry a

deliberating on the Cat's fate. They were not satisfied until the savage animal remained. Soon he grew into a magnificent Tom. His large, round head, his muscular legs, his reddish fur, flecked with darker patches, reminded one of a little ja

d probably to thoughtless persecution. The shes and the kittens would travel without any trouble: all you have to do is to put them in a basket; they will keep quiet on the journey. But the old Tom-cats were a serious

rdly were we seated at the evening meal, talking of the good fortune of our Tom-cat, when we saw a dripping mass jump t

. Loriol was frightened by the little lunatic; she hastened to open the window; and the Cat leapt out among the passers-by. A few minutes later, he was back at home. And it was no easy matter: he had to cross the town almost from end to end; he had to make his way through a long labyrinth of crowded streets, am

e spared the worry: a few days later, he was found lying stiff and stark under a shrub in

itting, with bristling hair, bloodshot eyes, lips white with foam. I thought him mad and watched him closely for a time. I was wrong: he was merely bewildered and frightened. Had there been trouble with the carter when he was caught? Did he have a bad time on the journey? I do not know. What I do know is that the very nature of the Cat seemed changed: there was no more friendly purring, no more rubbing against our legs; nothing but a wild expres

ly. We put them into baskets. The Tom has one to himself, so that the peace may be kept. The journey is made by carriage. Nothing striking happens before our arrival. When we let the mother Cats out of their hampers, they inspect the new home, explore the rooms one by one; with their p

alone in the house; we do everything we can to make him forget the old home. He seems, in fact, to forget it: he is gentle under the hand that pets him, he comes when called, purrs, arches his back. We have kept him shut up for a week, and now we think it is time to give him back h

mor

s! P

e, the hypocrite! How he has tricked us! He has gone, he is at

lly were covered with red clay; and yet the weather was dry, there was no mud. The Cat, therefore, must have swum the river, and the mo

e him to his fate. A neighbor out that way told me that he saw him one day hiding behind a hedge with a rabbit in his mouth. He was no longer provided with foo

ndreds of miles, are able to find their way back to their own dove-cot; so have the Swallows and many other birds. But to go back to t

RED

g up their own families, to look for their food, to take it even when it is within their reach. Therefore they need servants to feed them and keep house for them. They make a practice of stealing children to wait on the community. They raid the ne

ll, the front ones halt and spread out in a swarming throng, which is increased by the others as they come up hurriedly. Scouts are sent out; the Amazons recognize that they are on a wrong track; and the colum

ith their booty. Then we have, at the gates of the underground city, a bewildering scrimmage between the defending Blacks and the attacking Reds. The s

I have no time at present. Their return to the nest is wha

on them one day when they were advancing on a raid by the side of a garden pond. The wind was blowing hard and blew whole rows of the Ants into the water, where the Fish gobbled the

the Ants, to help me. She had been present at the great battle between the Reds and the Blacks and was much impressed by the stealing of

king in my study, there

the Reds have gone into th

know the roa

I mark

rked it?

did: I scattered little wh

ew feet away from the path, they were lost. The Ant relies on her sight and her memory for places to guide her home. Even when her raids to the same ant-hill are two or three days apart, she follows exactly the