The Red Ants 



can that be? In what does it resemble ours? 

 I have no answers to these questions; but a 

 few words will enable me to prove that the 

 insect has a very exact and persistent recollec- 

 tion of places which it has once visited. Here 

 is something which I have often witnessed. 

 It sometimes happens that the plundered Ant- 

 hill offers the Amazons a richer spoil than 

 the invading column is able to carry away. 

 Or, again, the region visited is rich in Ant- 

 hills. Another raid is necessary, to exploit 

 the site thoroughly. In such cases, a second 

 expedition takes place, sometimes on the next 

 day, sometimes two or three days later. This 

 time, the column does no reconnoitring on 

 the way : it goes straight to the spot known to 

 abound in nymphs and travels by the identical 

 path which it followed before. It has some- 

 times happened that I have marked with small 

 stones, for a distance of twenty yards, the 

 road pursued a couple of days earlier and 

 have then found the Amazons proceeding by 

 the same route, stone by stone : 



"They will go first here and then there," 

 I said, according to the position of the guide- 

 stones. 



And they would, in fact, go first here and 



147 



