I 22 



THE MUSEUM. 



when they are cauo;ht out at work by a 

 sudden shower, they incontinently 

 drop their loads, and scuttle off home. 

 When this happens — which is not of- 

 ten, for they are wonderfully weather- 

 wise — the whole road will be found 

 strewn thickly with bits of leaf. 



It is a very easy matter to prove 

 that the vast army is under proper dis- 

 cipline, for the drivers are constantly 

 running up and down the line, giving 

 their orders, which they communicate 

 in some mysterious manner by touch- 

 ing heads for an instant with the ant 

 who is to receive the order. If you 

 carefully watch the individual so 

 touched, you will see that he stops, or 

 turns back, or hurries on faster, as 

 the case may be — generally the latter. 



But the clearest proof of their disci- 

 pline is to place some obstacle they 

 cannot easily pass, such as a log of 

 wood or a big stone, accoss the line of 

 march. There is at once a jam of ants 

 ou both sides, and they run about m 

 utter dismay and confusion. Instantly 

 the drivers come tearing along from 

 either side in a state of frantic excite- 

 ment. Arrived at the impediment, 

 they run over it, round it, and under 

 it, if they can; and having found out 

 the best way out of the difficulty, 

 speedily lead off the host in proper 

 order. Remember, that until the 

 drivers have duly investigated the cause 

 of the block, not an ant tries to pass 

 the obstacle. 



When the colony is established on a 

 level piece of ground, a central per- 

 pendicular shaft is made, some eight 

 inches in diameter and si.x or seven 

 feet deep. This is for ventilating and 

 draining purposes only, and is never 

 used for ingress or egress. If the 

 ground slopes, the shaft is horizontal; 

 the mouth of course being at the bot- 

 tom of the hill. From the perpendic- 

 ular shaft, commencing at the bottom, 

 radiate galleries, like the spokes of a 

 wheel, set at a slight angle; these will 

 be about thirty inches long, and about 

 eighteen inches one above another. 

 At the end of each series of spokes a 



circular gallery is made, forming, as it 

 were, a set of wheels, one above the 

 other. In, or rather above, these cir- 

 cular galleries, the nests, or dwelling 

 places, are constructed; oval in shape, 

 and about a foot long. The narrow 

 end of the oval is downwards, and 

 opens into the roof of the gallery; and, 

 as the spokes always slope slightly 

 towards the shaft, however heavy the 

 tropical rains may be no water can 

 enter the homes and breeding-places 

 of the ants. Once I tried the experi- 

 ment of diverting a rivulet of water 

 into the upper part of one of the nests, 

 hoping to dro\vn out the enemy, and 

 to economize labor; but it had not the 

 slightest effect on them, for it never 

 penetrated into a single nest. 



When all the ground comprised 

 within the first series of wheels is filled 

 with nests, more radiating spokes are 

 run out from the circular galleries, and 

 more circular galleries made at the 

 end of these; and so on indefinitely, 

 until a space of perhaps a hundred 

 square yards or more is occupied. 



When all the ants are at home, each 

 dwelling will contain many thousands 

 of them: queens, drivers, workers and 

 builders living together, apparently in 

 harmony. 



In each nest will be found a quan- 

 tity of greyish, half-dried pulp, with 

 occasionally a few pieces of green leaf 

 mixed in it. The pulp is presumed to 

 be the leaves, reduced 1o this state by 

 mastication, for no other trace of them 

 can be discovered. Within the pulp, 

 which is honeycombed with holes, are 

 found the eggs and newly hatched 

 young: these latter in their early stages 

 being quite white and soft. 



Though the wee-wees live chiefly on 

 leaves, they do not altogether eschew 

 "flesh food," as the vegetaraians call 

 it; for I once found a small tree-frog 

 in one of their nests, with most of one 

 hind leg eaten away. They have also 

 a great liking for maize, when it is 

 ready shelled for them, and will carry 

 off the corn with great ease, holding 

 them over their heads in the same 



