344 INSECT MISCELLANIES. 



rescuing from the pillage. Next morning, Huber 

 returned at the same hour with the hope of ascer- 

 taining the nature of these proceedings, when he 

 discovered a numerous encampment of the legion- 

 aries,' ' These formed,' he tells us, ' into column, 

 set forth in a body, and fell upon one of the negro 

 hills, which they triumphantly entered after a very 

 feeble opposition. One division immediately re- 

 turned with the grubs v/hich they had captured, 

 while another party less fortunate came away empty- 

 handed ; but resolved, it would appear, not to go 

 home without booty, they marched in a body upon 

 another negro establishment, where they were abun- 

 dantly successful. The whole army now forming 

 two divisions, hastened to their own encampment, 

 which I took care to reach a little before them ; but 

 what was my surprise to observe ail around a great 

 number of that identical species, the negroes, which 

 they had gone forth to attack. I raised up a por- 

 tion of the building, and upon still perceiving more, 

 1 conjectured that it was one of the encampments 

 which had already been pillaged by the legionaries, 

 but 1 was set right by the arrival at the entrance of 

 the very army I had been watching, laden with the 

 trophies of victory. Its return excited no alarm 

 among the negro-ants, who, so far from offering op- 

 position to the entrance of the triumphant army, 1 

 even observed to approach the warriors to caress 

 them, and present them with food, as is the custom 

 among their own species, whilst the legionaries in 

 turn consigned to them their prisoners to be carried 

 into the interior of the nest.'* 



They do not always complete the pillage at the first, 

 or even the second attack, for this negro colony was 

 successively invaded in the same manner three seve- 

 ral times. The third time, however, the invaders 



* Huber on Ants, p, 254. 



