l^ERfECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 81 



aded; upon this their anxiety to send couriers to their 

 own nest seemed to increase : these spreading a gene- 

 ral alarm, a large reinforcement immediately set out to 

 join the besieging army ; yet even then they did not 

 begin the battle. Almost all the negroes, coming out 

 of their fortress, formed themselves in a body about two 

 feet square in front of it, and there expected the enemy. 

 Frequent skirmishes were the prelude to the main con- 

 flict, which was begun by the negroes. Long before 

 success appeared dubious they carried off their pupae, 

 and heaped them up at the entrance to their nest, on the 

 side opposite to that on which the enemy approached. 

 The young females also fled to the same quarter. The 

 sanguine ants at length rush upon the negroes, and at- 

 tacking them on all sides, after a stout resistance the 

 latter, renouncing all defence, endeavour to make off 

 to a distance with the pupaB they have heaped up : — the 

 host of assailants pursues, and strives to force from them 

 these objects of their care. Many also enter the for- 

 micary, and begin to carry off the young brood that are 

 lefl in it. A continued chain of ants engaged in this 

 employment extends from nest to nest, and the day and 

 part of the night pass before all is finished. A gar- 

 rison being left in the captured city, on the following 

 morning the business of transporting the brood is re- 

 newed. It often happens (for this species of ant loves 

 to change its habitation) that the conquerors emigrate 

 with all their family to the acquisition which their va- 

 lour has gained. All the incursions of J^. sanguinea 

 take place in the space of a month, and they make only 

 five or six in the year. They will sometimes travel 

 1 50 paces to attack a negro colony. 



VOL. II. G 



