290 AMAZON ANTS. 
colony: on their return they share the 
fruits of their industry with the Amazons, 
who are as idle in this community, as in 
that of compound Negro ant-hills, The 
Mining Ants, moreover, are alone employ- 
ed in establishing a new domicile, and 
transporting thither the Rufescent Ants, 
their puper, their larvee, and the rest of 
the colony, whenever they wish to 
change their abode; in a word, they are 
equally excellent labourers as the Negro 
Ants, and display much more zeal in 
defending their nest. 
If compound ant-hills owe their exist- 
ence to the pillage of the pupe, the 
object of the Amazon Ants in their 
excursions would be, to attack the dwel- 
ling of Mining Ants, when their asso- 
ciates were of that cast, and of Negro 
Ants when they lived with ants of that 
species. 
In the neighbourhood of the mixed 
ant-hill of which I have just spoken, 
comprising a circumference of more than 
fifty paces, there was no habitation of 
