284 HENRY C. MCCOOK. 



learned from a young man who had often watched the conflicts, that 

 the Fallow ants (F. nt/a), are inveterate foes of the Pennsylvania ant«. 

 I have myself observed the energy with which the former resent the 

 approach of the latter to their hills. While encamped upon Brush 

 Mountain last summer studying the habits of the Fallow ants, I wit- 

 nessed a stubborn conflict between a number of these insects and a 

 large winged queen of F. Pennsj/hani'ca. During a temporary absence 

 a party of laborers visited camp, and intruding within the tent, upset 

 an artificial formicary which 1 had established in a glass jar and set 

 under the canvas for safety. The men were driven off, but as the nest 

 on which the ants were working appeared to be demolished, our man 

 John, a shrewd German, concluded to try an experiment of his own. 

 He had caught the infection of investigation ! Seizing a large (|iieen 

 of Pennsylvanica he dropped it amongst the rufas and awaited results. 

 When I returned he announced the disaster and his experiment in 

 the same breath, and eagerly summoned me to witness the fray. Ten 

 dead rufas lay upon the earth within the jar. The black queen was 

 in the very act of crushing one of her plucky assailants between her 

 formidable jaws. Two "squeezes" of the powerful implements and 

 the red foe was cast out disabled. Another immediately sprang upon 

 the queen's face, was seized by the thorax, crushed and cast aside as 

 her comrade had been. In the meantime two ants held the queen 

 back by one of the antennae. They evidently knew how sensitive 

 these organs are, and as plainly understood the importance of keeping 

 rid of the ponderous mandibles. For, each held the antenna by the 

 extreme joint, and had withdrawn as far from the face as possible, 

 holding the queen, so to speak, " at arms length." One of them had 

 backed up a tiny twig which projected through the soil, and ascended 

 or descended, according to the queen's movements, keeping the antenna 

 all the while taut. Other ants had seized upon other parts of the body. 

 While I looked the queen was, or appeared to be dragged out of sight 

 into a cell or gallery, which remained unbroken or had been restored 

 after the overturning of the jar. I now supposed that the combat was 



Bwalloweth them down, and thereby cureth her lothing stomack." Whether 

 the truth abide with the Allegheny hunter who attributes the inroad of Bruin 

 upon the formicidse to simple hunger, or with the ancient chronicler who 

 ascribes it to some natural capability for the healing art, who shall decide? 

 Certainly, on the one hand, the abdomens of the ants filled with honeydew, 

 would be quite agreeable to the notorious "sweet tooth" of the bear. On the 

 other, there is the formic acid which the ant yields, that may be a sovereign 

 remedy for the ailments of poor Bruin. la this view of the case we might per- 

 haps be able to account for the fact that the " Medicine man " of our aboriginal 

 tribes, so commonly afFects the hide of a bear for his Esculapian rites. 



