152 BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 



aphides. But it would be rash to infer from this that they subsist on nectar and 

 sweets. A friend of mine, and a valued member of this Society, had a tame eagle 

 killed by them and that it was killed for the table admits of little doubt. I believe 

 they devour young birds and every other living thing that falls in their wav and 

 cannot escape Considering how few trees on the western ghauts are free from 

 them, it seems a wonder that birds can find places to buildtheir nests. From what 

 I have seen I am inclined to think that a good many nests are deserted on account 

 of them. The red ant appears to be as active by night as by day This is a point 

 in which the various species of ants differ very much from each other. Some never 

 come out of their holes at night, while some regularly retire for a siesta at noon 

 and doubtless some are wholly nocturnal. 



But that which distinguishes the red ant from all other ants, and indeed from 

 all other beings, is its temper. The shepherd in Noctes ambbosian^E says that 

 the wasp is the only one of God's creature which is eternally out of temper ; but 

 the shepherd did not know the red ant. Nor did I till lately. I thought I did, and 

 by painful experience too. I had often had reason to notice how they appear to 

 have intimation beforehand of your intention to pass that way. How they rundown 

 every branch that stretches across the path, and wait with jaws extended, how they 

 fling themselves on you, or drop from above, and scorning to waste their strength 

 on your hat or clothes, find out the back of your neck, and bury their longsickle 

 shaped mandibles in your flesh ; but I lately discovered that all this was only the 

 ABC of their ferocity. One evening I found thata countless multitude of red ant 

 had collected about two trees close to my tent and were making a thoroughfare of 

 one of the ropes. I thought it best to discourage this, so I got some kerosine oil 

 the best antidote I know for insect pests of every kind, and dipping a feather into 

 it, began to anoint the rope, thinking in my simplicity that they would not like to 

 cross the oil and would be obliged to find another road. There was a perfect storm 

 of indignation. They rushed together from both sides, and threw themselves on 

 the oiled feather in the spirit of Marcus Curtius. They died <>f course, but others 

 came on in scores, panting for the same glorious death, and I had to "give up my 

 idea of dislodging them by kerosine. T determined then to try tobacco, for I had 

 always supposed that man was the only animal which could endure the smell of 

 that weed. I lighted a cheroot, and steadily blew the smoke where they were 

 thickest. Never in my life have I seen anything like the frenzy of passion which 

 followed the first few puffs. To be attacked by an enemy of which they could not 

 lay hold seems to be really too much for them. In their rage they laid hold of 

 each other, and as a red ant never lets go, they were soon linked together by headj 

 legs, and antennae into one horrible, red, quivering mass I left these, and going 

 to another place, offered the end of my cheroot, with about an inch of ash on 

 it. Several seized it instantly The heat killed them, but others laid hold of their 

 charred limbs, and by their united strength they positively wrenched off the ash 

 which remained hanging from the tent rope, by their jaws, while scores hurried 

 from both sides, with fiendish fury, to help in worrying it. I then presented the 

 hot end. The foremost ant offered battle without a moment's hesitation, and 

 perished with a fizz, but another and another followed and I saw plainly that I was 

 beaten again, for the cheroot was going out, while their fury only burned the more 



