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INTERESTING ANT-SCENE. 



Mr. Editor : — Since the appearance of several articles in your ex- 

 cellent Journal on the subject of ants, my attention has been directed to 

 them. I have a distinct recollection of a scene that occurred on the 

 step of my porch during the warm weather of last Summer. Seated in 

 the shade during the evening of a sultry day, I saw many ants passing 

 to and fro with the characteristic alacrity of that insect, frequently stop- 

 ping a moment and touching each other with their feelers, apparently 

 saluting each other, and then passing on with hurried steps to complete 

 the work of a day. Among the crowd that were moving along, I no- 

 ticed two large black ants that did not participate in the activity and 

 friendly feeling of those around them. They were in close proximity 

 with each other, and, when first seen, were motionless. On close exam- 

 ination I discovered that they were engaged in deadly combat, and that 

 they had seized each other with their powerful mandibles, and were not 

 disposed to relinquish their grasp. Presently they renewed the contest, 

 and began to pull each other furiously. One of the gentlemen, I discov- 

 ered, had already lost a leg in the warfare, but manifested no disposition 

 to abandon the contest, I wondered how they two, and no more, hap- 

 pened to come together in this place, and, away from their friends and 

 acquaintances, engage in such a fearful battle ; for they were of a differ- 

 ent species from the small ants which were passing near them, and seem- 

 ed to be ignorant of their existence. Did they belong to the same fam- 

 ily or different families ? Had high words passed between them in a 

 debating club, or in a congress of the tribe, and had they come here on 

 the step of my porch as a neutral ground to settle their difhculties } I 

 knew it could not be a love affair, for the ants have never been known 

 to pull off each others legs, or blow out each others brains under such 

 influences. These chaps belonged to the class called neuters, and there- 

 fore cared nothing at all about the ladies. I knew that the ants, in large 

 numbers, marshalled in battle array, attacked and robbed their neighbors 

 of their larvae, and reared them as members of their own tribe and em- 

 ployed them as workers. But here is a single combat, between two gen- 

 tlemen, without seconds or attendants of any kind, in a retired place, 

 behind the corner of my porch, in the shade, in the after-part of the 

 day. It was to me quite inexplicable. Whilst these thoughts were 

 passing through my mind another ant of the same species passed along 

 on the step; whether he was in pursuit of the two combatants, or what 

 he was after, I could never discover. He paused when he came near 

 them, touched one of them with his feelers, and then jumped back with 



