56 JUNGLE ISLAND 



bare red clay showed signs of much traveling. 

 Some of these paths were deserted, but along 

 others marched files of leaf-cutting ants, called 

 Attas. They came in a steady stream, about one 

 to every six inches. Each carried in his jaws a 

 rounded bit of leaf half an inch wide and three- 

 fourths of an inch long, held up and down like 

 a sail. If the wind blows too strongly the ants 

 are sometimes capsized. 



Follow those that are going back for a fresh 

 load and you reach a hillside where plants and 

 bushes are being stripped of their leaves to a 

 height of two feet. The Atta prefers green leaves, 

 but I have seen in the same procession ants 

 carrying bits of green leaves, of brown dead leaves, 

 and of the pink blossoms which were falling from 

 a large tree high above the jungle roof. 



Attas are reddish brown and less than half an 

 inch long. I wanted a photograph of them on the 

 trail, and cut away an overhanging branch to let 

 in all the sunlight I could get for a picture of such 

 small creatures. The ants were bothered. They 

 gathered at the edge of the sunlit space, and it 

 was some little time before they ran across again. 

 Neither do they seem to like to get wet. After 

 an early morning rain the runways are littered 

 with untidy leaf fragments which they have 

 dropped to hurry home and which they clear 

 away later when the rain has stopped. In very 

 dry weather they stop work through noontime. 



