MILITARY ANTS. 119 



portion, and made short circuits until they hit the scented trail 

 again, when all their hesitation vanished, and they ran up and 

 down it with the greatest confidence. On gaining the top of 

 the cutting, the ants entered some brushwood suitable for hunt- 

 ing. Ln a very short space of time the information was com- 

 municated to the ants below, and a dense column rushed up to 

 search for their prey. The Ecitons are singular amongst the 

 ants in this respect, that they have no fixed habitations, but 

 move on from one place to another, as they exhaust the hunting 

 grounds around them. I think Eciton hamata does not stay 

 more than four or five days in one place. I have sometimes 

 come across the migratory columns ; they may easily be known. 

 Here and there one of the light- coloured oflicers moves back- 

 wards and forwards directing the columns. Such a column is 

 of enormous length, and contains many thousands if not millions 

 of individuals. I have sometimes followed them up for two or 

 three hundred yards without getting to the end. 



They make their temporary habitations in hollow trees, and 

 sometimes underneath large fallen trucks that offer suitable 

 hollows. A nest that I came across in the latter situation was 

 open at one side. The ants were clustered together in a dense 

 mass, like a great swarm of bees, hanging from the roof but 

 reaching to the ground below. Their innumerable long legs 

 looked like brown threads binding together the mass, which 

 must have been at least a cubic yard in bulk, and contained 

 hundreds of thousands of individuals, although many columns 

 were outside, some bringing in the pupae of ants, others the legs 

 and dissected bodies of various insects. I was surprised to see 

 in this living nest tubular passages leading down to the centre 

 of the mass, kept open just as if it had been formed of inorganic 

 materials. Down these holes the ants who were bringing in 

 booty passed with their prey. I thrust a long stick down to 

 the centre of the cluster, and brought out clinging to it many 

 ants holding larvae and pupae, which probably were kept warm 

 by the crowding together of the ants. Besides the Common 

 dark- coloured workers and light-coloured officers, I saw here 

 many still larger individuals with enormous jaws. These 

 they go about holding wide open in a threatening manner. 



It was this ant which, as previously stated, showed 

 sympathy and fellow-feeling with companions in diffi- 

 culties. 



The habits of E. drepanophora are closely similar 

 to those of the species already described ; and, indeed. 



