MIMICKY IN SPIDERS. 3G3 



a peculiar whistle, which was at once recognized by the flock of chickens, 

 who hurried together at the call, as tame birds always do when summoned 

 to feed. The gamekeeper tossed them several bits of sod containing ant 

 nests, whieh tlu' birds attacked, tore in pieces, and in a nidnieut had de- 

 voured all the insect contents. Simonella americana is not much larger 

 than these ants, and certainly there would be little protection from such 

 voracious creatures as these in the mimicry of ant forms. I have no doubt, 

 although I cannot speak positively, that our American quail are ecpially as 

 fond of ants as these Engli-sh partridges ; and as they are ground birds, 

 tlieir habits of feeding would make them destructive enemies of all ant sjae- 

 cies burrowing in the earth. 



Again, it is well known that in the warm districts of South America, 



and in other parts of the earth, there is a family of birds who are such 



persistent destroyers of ants that they take their family name 



., from this habit, and are known as the Formicariida'. ' These 



ant thrushes. Pittas or Pittidte, are also an Old AVorld group, 



being found in the Malay Islands. The Great ant thrush, which is also 



called the Giant Pitta, is a native of Surinam, and is a bird about the size 



of the English rook.'^ 



I have heard, although I cannot now cite the authority, that in Africa, 

 when the Driver ants go out ujion their excursions, during which they will 

 prey upon all sorts of insects and small vertebrate animals, ant thrushes, 

 or some species of ant devouring bird, hover over the raiding column, 

 upon which they make tlieir assaults, devouring immense numbers of the 

 drivers.* Such are some of the facts which have fallen to my notice, or 

 under my eye ; and while it is probably true that some birds avoid ants 

 as articles of food, I imagine that nearly all animal feeding birds will jiick 

 them up whenever they have an opportunity. Such being the case, w'e can 

 hardly admit the force of an argument which is based upon the supijosi- 

 tion that the form of an ant would protect a spider, or any other creature, 

 on account of the disrelish of birds for ants. 



If we were inclined to accept the theory of natural selection, as above 

 outlined, as an origin for mimicry of ant forms, it would seem to me more 

 rational to suppose that the particular enemy against whicii the 

 ■^^^ mocking form is protected, is not the bird, but the wasp and 



asps ie-hneumon fly. My chapter on the Enemies of Spiders shows 

 icked? what depredation is wrought among araneads by various mem- 

 bers of the wasp family. As far as I know, wasps do not inter- 

 fere with each other, or with ants, who closely resemble them, being, in 

 fact, members of the same order of Hymenoptera. Anything that would 



1 Alfred Wallace, " Geographical Distribution of Animals, Vol. II., page 298 ; AVright, 

 "Animal Life," page 271. - "Wood's Natural History," page 341. 



' I think that this, or a similar fact, was told me by an African missionary to the Cbngo 

 region. 



