ANTS WAES. 73 



last turned home again by a long way round. The whole busi- 

 ness looked like a promenade. But apparently different parties 

 had different nests in view, while others were entirely against 

 the expedition. Yet perhaps it was only a march for exercise. 

 Outer obstacles do not, as a rule, hinder the Amazons when 

 they are once on the march. Forel saw them wade through 

 some shallow water, although many were drowned in it, and 

 then march over a dusty high road, although the wind blew 

 half of them away. As they returned, booty-laden, neither 

 wind, nor dust, nor water could make them lay down their 

 prey. They only got back with great trouble, and turned back 

 again to bring fresh booty, although many lost their lives, v. / 



The following is also quoted from Btichner's excellent 

 epitome of Forel's observations in this connection : 



The most terrible enemy of the Amazons is the sanguine 

 ant (F. sanguinea), which also keeps slaves, and thereby often 

 comes into collision with the Amazons on their marauding ex- 

 cursions. It is not equal to it in bodily strength or fighting 

 capacity, but surpasses it in intelligence ; according to Forel it 

 is the most intelligent of all the species of ants. If Forel, for 

 instance, poured out the contents of a sack filled with a nest of 

 the slave species near an Amazon nest, the Amazons apparently 

 generally regarded the tumbled together heap of ants, larvae, 

 pupae, earth, building materials, &c., as the dome of a hostile 

 nest, and took all imaginable but useless pains to find out the 

 entrances thereinto, leaving on one side for this investigation 

 their only object, the carrying off the pupae ; but the sanguine 

 ants under similar circumstances did not allow themselves to be 

 deceived, but at once ransacked the whole heap. 



On another occasion, while a procession of Amazon 

 ants was on its way to plunder a nest of F. fusca, before 

 it arrived Forel poured out a sack-full of sanguine ants, 

 and made a break in the nest : 



The sanguine ants pressed in, while the fusca came out to 

 defend themselves. At this moment the first Amazons arrived. 

 When they saw the sanguine ants they drew back and awaited 

 the main army, which appeared much disturbed at the news. 

 But once united, the bold robbers rushed at their foes. The 

 latter gathered together and beat back the first attack, but the 

 Amazons closed up their ranks and made a second assaiilt, which 

 carried them on to the dome and into the midst of the enemy. 

 These were overthrown, as well as a number of F. pratensis, 



