72 THE NATURALIST IN NICARAGUA. [Ch. V. 



the ants eat them up." The first acquaintance a stranger 

 generally makes with them is on encountering their paths 

 on the outskirts of the forest crowded with the ants ; one 

 lot carrying off the pieces of leaves, each piece about the 

 size of a sixpence, and held up vertically between the 

 jaws of the ant; another lot hurrying along in an opposite 

 direction empty handed, but eager to get loaded with 

 their leafy burdens. If he follows this last division, it 

 will lead him to some young trees or shrubs, up which 

 the ants mount ; and where each one, stationing itself on 

 the edge of a leaf, commences to make a circular cut, 

 with its scissor-like jaws, from the edge, its hinder feet 

 being the centre on which it turns. When the piece is 

 nearly cut off, it is still stationed upon it, and it looks 

 as though it would fall to the ground with it; but, on 

 being finally detached, the ant is generally found to have 

 hold of the leaf with one foot, and soon righting itself, 

 and arranging its burden to its satisfaction, it sets off at 

 once on its return. Following it again, it is seen to join 

 a throng of others, each laden like itself, and, without a 

 moment's delay, it hurries along the well-worn path. 

 As it proceeds, other paths, each thronged with busy 

 workers, come in from the sides, until the main road 

 often gets to be seven or eight inches broad, and more 

 thronged than the streets of the city of London. 



After travelling for some hundreds of yards, often for 

 more than half a mile, the formicarium is reached. It 

 consists of low, wide mounds of brown, clayey-looking 

 earth, above and immediately around which the bushes 

 have been killed by their buds and leaves having 

 been persistently bitten off as they attempted to grow 

 after their first defoliation. Under Irish trees in the 



