PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 79 



Wlien I'rom their proximity they are more readily to 

 be come at than those of the negroes, they sometimes 

 assault with the same view the nest of another species 

 of ant, which I shall call the miners {F. cunicularia). 



facts advanced by Huber. He has also said the same in his Considera- 

 tions nouvelleset generales sur les insecies vivant en Societe. (Mem. dii 

 Mus. iii. 407.) At the same time he informed me that there was a 

 nest of the rufescent ants in the Bois de Boulogne, to which place he 

 afterwards was so good as to accompany me. Wc went on the 2oth 

 of June, ISI7. The day was excessively hot and sultry. A little be- 

 fore five in the afternoon we began our search. At first we could 

 not discern a single ant in motion. In a minute or two, however, 

 my friend directed my attention to one individual — two or three 

 more next appeared — and soon a numerous army was to be seen 

 winding through the long grass of a low ridge in which was their 

 formicary. Just at the entrance of the wood from Paris, on the right- 

 hand and near the road, is a bare place paled in for the Sunday 

 amusement of the lower orders — to this the ants directed their 

 march, and upon entering it divided into two columns, which tra- 

 versed it rapidly and with great apparent eagerness; all the while ex- 

 ploring the ground with their antennce as beagles with their noses, 

 evidently as if in pursuit of game. Those in the van, as Huber also 

 observed, kept perpetually falling back into the main body. When 

 they had passed this inclosure, they appeared for some time to be at 

 a loss, making no progress but only coursing about : but after a few- 

 minutes delay, as if they had received some intelligence, they re- 

 sumed their march and soon arrived at a negro nest, which they en- 

 tered by one or two apertures. We could not observe that any ne- 

 groes were expecting their attack outside the nest, but in a short 

 time a few came out at another opening, and seemed to be making 

 their escape. Perhaps some conflict might have taken place within 

 the nest, in the interval between the appearance of these negroes 

 and the entry of their assailants. However this might be, in a few 

 minutes one of the latter made its appearance with a pupa in its 

 mouth ; it was followed by three or four more ; and soon the whole 

 army began to emerge as fast as it could, almost every individual car- 

 rying its burthen. Most that I observed seemed to have pupEe. I then 

 traced the expedition back to the spot from which I first saw them 

 set out, which according to my ste|)s was about 15G feet from the 

 negro formicary. The whole business was transacted in little more 

 than an hour. Though I could trace the ants back to a certain spot 



