Marvels of insect life ; a popular account of structure and habit . the fleeing ones having ninnerous ants attached to them bv the jaws, so that they soon succumbedto the painful bites. 138 Marvels of Insect Life. the ants began to decamp, and soon not one was to be seen within doors. Butthe grass round the house was fuh of them ; and they seemed now feasting on thelemnants of their prey, which had been left on the road to their nests ; and sothe feasting continued tih about four oclock when the blackbirds, who had neverbeen long absent from the calibasli and f^oisdoux trees in the neighbourho
Marvels of insect life ; a popular account of structure and habit . the fleeing ones having ninnerous ants attached to them bv the jaws, so that they soon succumbedto the painful bites. 138 Marvels of Insect Life. the ants began to decamp, and soon not one was to be seen within doors. Butthe grass round the house was fuh of them ; and they seemed now feasting on thelemnants of their prey, which had been left on the road to their nests ; and sothe feasting continued tih about four oclock when the blackbirds, who had neverbeen long absent from the calibasli and f^oisdoux trees in the neighbourhood, darteddown among them, and destroyed by millions those who were too sluggish to makegood their retreat. By five oclock the whole was over ; before sun-down the negro-houses were all cleared in the same way; and they told me they had seen the black-birds hovering about the almond-trees close to the negro-houses, as early as sevenin the morning. I never saw those blackbirds before or since, and the negroesassured me that they were never seen but at such Pholo by] The Drummer. [, Tho huge cockroach known in the West Indies as thedruiniiicr. It is. the kind referred to in the account of the ants is here shown only four-fifths of the actual size. How Insects Breathe. One of the details of structure in which Insects difier from most other animalsis that they have no lungs and the mouth plays no part in the respiration. As wehave already briefly indicated, the air enters the body of the Insect through a seriesof openings called spiracles, which may be found at intervals along tlie sides of thebody. You may close the mouth of an Insect without affecting its breathing in theslightest degree, for the mouth communicates with the digx^stive svstem only. l)iitif an Insect be painted with oil along its sides, so that the spiracles are clogged,death must result though the mouth remains open. In the early stages of dragon-flies, caddis-flies, and som
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjecta, booksubjectinsects
