HAEVESTING ANTS. 109 



through the crowd that vainly but persistently endeavoured to 

 get in with their burdens. The outcoming ants had the ad- 

 vantage, and succeeded in jostling through the quivering rosette 

 of antennae, legs, heads, and abdomens. Occasionally a worker 

 gained an entrance by dint of sheer physical force and perse- 

 verance. Again and again would the crowd rush from all 

 sides upon the gate, only to be pushed back by the issuing 

 throng. In the meanwhile quite a heap of termites, a good 

 handful at least, had been accumulated at one side of the gate, 

 the ants having evidently dropped them, in despair of entrance, 

 and hurried off to garner more. 



In due time the pressure upon the vestibule diminished, 

 the laden workers entered more freely, and in the end this heap 

 was transferred to the interior. The rapidity with which the 

 ants were distributed to all parts of their roads, after the first 

 opening of the gates, was truly surprising. I was greatly 

 puzzled, at the first, to know what the cause of such a rush 

 might be. The whole behaviour was such as to carry the con- 

 viction that they knew accurately what effect the rain would 

 have, had calculated upon it, and were acting in accordance 

 with previous experience. I had no doubt at the time, and 

 have none now, that the capturing of insects beaten down by 

 the rain is one of the well-established customs of these ants. I 

 saw a few other insects taken in, and one milliped, but chiefly 

 the white ants. 



That very afternoon I found in a formicary which I then 

 opened several large colonies, or parts of one colony of ter- 

 mites, nested within the limits of the disk and quite at home. 

 The next day numbers of the winged white ants were found 

 stored within the granaries of a large formicary. There is no 

 reason to doubt that these insects were intended for food, in 

 accoi'dance with the quite universal habit of the Formicarice. 



A curious habit has been noticed by most observers to 

 occur in many species of ant, and it is one on which Mr. 

 MacCook has a good deal to say. The habit in question 

 consists in the ants transporting one another from place to 

 place. The carrying ant seizes her comrade by the middle, 

 and hurries along with it held aloft the ant which is 

 carried remaining quite motionless with all her legs drawn 

 together. Huber supposed the process to be one enjoy- 

 able to both the insects concerned, and to be performed by 

 mutual understanding and consent; but MacCook, in 

 common with most other observers, supposes that it is 



