PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 375 



species undertake, the extent of which would be incredible if not so well 

 authenticated. M. Lund states that he once followed one of these vast 

 hosts for five days ; and M. Lacordaire informs us that when in Cayenne 

 he saw a migratory army of this description pass his residence which was 

 about a hundred paces broad, and which occupied more than a day and 

 a half in passing, though the ants marched rapidly and made no halt. It 

 is to a species of the ants making these migrations, that Madame Merian 

 gave the name of Ants of Visitation, before alluded to, as so useful by 

 entering all the houses on their march, and clearing them of all noxious 

 insects or other animals. M. Lacordaire, however, denies that any such 

 object actuates these migrating ants, which he says often pass houses with- 

 out entering them ; and that when they do, it is for want of food on their 

 route, though he admits that in this case they leave no living animal in the 

 houses which they visit, as he himself once witnessed at Cayenne.^ But 

 whatever may be the fact as to the migrating ants of Cayenne, the Chas- 

 seur-Ants of Trinidad would seem to migrate for the express purpose of 

 scouring human habitations for food, according to the account given by Mrs. 

 Carmichael, which presents so graphic a picture of their proceedings, that 

 I shall give it to you entire, especially as its minute and circumstantial 

 details seem to vouch for its accuracy : — 



" One morning my attention was arrested at Laurel Hill by an unusual 

 number of black birds, whose appearance was foreign to me : they were 

 smaller, but not unlike an English crow ; and were perched on a calibash- 

 tree near the kitchen. I asked the house-negress, who at that moment 

 came up from the garden, what could be the cause of the appearance of 

 those black birds? She said, "Misses, dem be a sign of the blessing of 

 God; dey are not de blessing, but only de sign, as we say, of God's 

 blessing. Misses, you'll see afore noon-time how the ants will come and 

 clear the houses." At this moment I was called to breakfast, and think- 

 ing it was some superstitious idea of hers, I paid no further attention to it. 



" In about two hours after this, I observed an uncommon number of 

 chasseur-ants crawling about the floor of the room : my children were 

 annoyed by them, and seated themselves on a table, where their legs did 

 not communicate with the floor. The ants did not crawl upon my person, 

 but I was now surrounded by them. Shortly after this, the walls of the 

 room became covered by them ; and next they began to take possession 

 of the tables and chairs. I now thought it necessary to take refuge in an 

 adjoining room, separated only by a few ascending steps from the one we 

 occupied, and this was not accomplished without great care and general- 

 ship, for had we trodden upon one we should have been summarily 

 punished. There were several ants on the step of the stair, but they 

 were not nearly so numerous as in the room we had left; but the upper 

 room presented a singular spectacle, for not only were the floor and the 

 walls covered like the other room, but the roof was covered also. 



" The open rafters of a West India house at all times afford shelter to 

 a numerous tribe of insects, more particularly the cockroach ; but now 

 their destruction was inevitable. The chasseur-ants, as if trained for 

 battle, ascended in regular, thick files, to the rafters, and threw down the 



1 Lacordaire, Introd. h VEntom. ii. 504. 



