THE AMAZONS. 



481 



tained the flourishing siibccnescens colony reconnoitered by the scout, 

 climbed about on it and thrust their heads into every cranny. It was 

 all to no purpose the sitbcciicsccns had moved away with their fine 

 lot of young. Slowly and in what seemed to be a crestfallen and dis- 

 appointed spirit the amazons assembled and returned with empty jaws 

 to their nest. They had all entered the dead branch before 2PM. 



August 5. At 1.45 P. M. I visited the bicolor nest for the last time. 

 Carefully removing the dead oak leaves I broke open the branch, but 

 it was empty. The colony had moved to some other spot and I searched 

 for it in vain in the neighborhood. 



These observations are recorded in detail because they illustrate so 

 many of the interesting peculiarities of the amazons. The behavior of 



FIG. 270. Polyergus Incidiis and its slave, somewhat enlarged. ("Original.) 

 In the upper row: worker of P. Incidiis. head of same and head of Formica schait- 

 fussi; in the middle row, male, virgin female and worker of P. Incidiis; in the 

 lower row workers of F. schaiifiissi. 



the scouts confirms Forel's opinion of the way in which the location of 

 slave nests is ascertained, and the behavior of the amazon troup and 

 of the harassed subcenescens colonies on successive days shows how 

 complicated are the environmental conditions which these insects have 

 to meet and the intricacy of the problems with which the observer 

 has to deal. The slave colonies are repeatedly plundered and driven 

 from pillar to post, till they probably emigrate to other localities in 

 sheer desperation. Then the Polyergus, too, finding no nests to pillage, 

 are compelled to seek a new field for their persistent and pernicious 

 activities. Surely Fabre is right in maintaining that the life of a preda- 

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