docile than the typical Kuropean fnsca and rufibarbis. This latter is, 

 indeed, very far from bring a gentle and tractable ant. 



The slave-making tactics of our sanguinary ants are in the main 

 very similar to tho>c of the Kuropean form. They usually start on 

 their raids in the morning and may return laden with booty before 

 noon, or their expeditions may drag along for the remainder of the 

 day or even over the following day if the colony to be pillaged is at 

 some distance, of large size and belligerent, or contains a great number 

 of larvse and pupae. Sometimes, however, the sortie is postponed till 

 the afternoon. This was the case in the following instance which I 

 take from a number of similar expeditions of which I Jiave kept notes: 



Rockford, 111., July 14. At 4 P. M. I located a large colony of F. 

 fuscata which was nesting under a piece of wood in a loose hazel 

 thicket. On removing the wood I found a large, Mat chamber, from 

 the bottom of which a single opening 2 cm. in diameter led down into 

 the subterranean galleries of the nest. The chamber was full of fns- 

 cata workers, winged females, larvre and naked pupse and the whole 

 assemblage hastily poured down the opening out of sight. Looking 

 up I saw a scattered army of rubicunda rapidly approaching the nest. 

 When they reached the circle of grass immediately surrounding the 

 earth just exposed by the removal of the wood, they stopped and com- 

 pletely surrounded the spot. They waited or kept advancing and 

 retreating, but never entered the hole until the rear detachment had 

 arrived. Even after the whole army, numbering at least 400 rnbicnnda, 

 had assembled, they kept up this advancing and retreating movement for 

 fully fifteen minutes, as if fearing the fuscata, which in the meantime 

 were hiding in their nest. Now and then a rubicunda, bolder than her 

 sisters, would enter the hole, but dart out again immediately. After 

 twenty minutes more of this manoeuvring, however, the slave-makers 

 grew bolder and began to pour into the opening. For some time longer 

 and at intervals of three to five minutes a rubicunda would emerge 

 from the nest with a larva or pupa and start for home. As soon as 

 one of these lucky individuals appeared, four or five of the workers on 

 the outside of the nest would try to wrest away her booty. Sometimes 

 one of them was successful and at once started off for her nest. 

 Finally, at 4.35 P. M., thirty-five minutes after the nest had been sur- 

 rounded, a winged fuscata female shot out of the opening, immediately 

 followed by fully fifty others and a flood of fuscata workers carrying 

 larvae and pupae in their jaws. They scattered at once in all directions, 

 breaking through the rubicunda cordon and making for the grass 

 beyond. The rubicunda instantly fell upon both females and workers 

 and tore the larvae and pupse from the jaws of the latter. The long- 



