Cuap. XII. FREEBOOTING ANTS. 357 
habits. The first time I saw an army was one evening near sunset. 
The column consisted of two trains of ants, moving in opposite directions ; 
one train empty-handed, the other laden with the mangled remains of 
insects, chiefly larvee and pupz of other ants. I had no difficulty in 
tracing the line to the spot from which they were conveying their booty ; 
this was a low thicket ; the Ecitons were moving rapidly about a heap 
of dead leaves ; but as the short tropical twilight was deepening rapidly, 
and I had no wish to be benighted on the lonely campos, I deferred 
further examination until the next day. 
On the following morning no trace of ants could be found near the 
place where I had seen them the preceding day, nor were there signs 
of insects of any description in the thicket ; but at the distance of eighty 
or one hundred yards, I came upon the same army, engaged evidently 
on a razzia of a similar kind to that of the previous evening; but 
requiring other resources of their instinct, owing to the nature of the 
ground. ‘They were eagerly occupied on the face of an inclined bank 
of light earth in excavating mines, whence, from a depth of eight or ten 
inches, they were extracting the bodies of a bulky species of ant of the 
genus Formica. It was curious to see them crowding round the orifices 
of the mines, some assisting their comrades to lift out the bodies of the 
Formice, and others tearing them in pieces, on account of their weight 
being too great for a single Eciton ; a number of carriers seizing each a 
fragment, and carrying it off down the slope. On digging into the earth 
with a small trowel near the entrances of the mines, I found the nests 
of the Formicze, with grubs and cocoons, which the Ecitons were thus 
invading, at a depth of about eight inches from the surface. The eager 
freebooters rushed in as fast as I excavated, and seized the ants in my 
fingers as I picked them out, so that I had some difficulty in rescuing 
a few entire for specimens. In digging the numerous mines to get at 
their prey, the little Ecitons seemed to be divided into parties, one set 
excavating and another set carrying away the grains of earth. Whenthe 
shafts became rather deep, the mining parties had to climb up the sides 
each time they wished to cast out a pellet of earth; but their work was 
lightened for them by comrades who stationed themselves at the mouth 
of the shaft, and relieved them of their burthens, carrying the particles, 
with an appearance of foresight which quite staggered me, a sufficient 
distance from the edge of the hole to prevent them from rolling in again. 
All the work seemed thus to be performed by intelligent co-operation 
amongst the host of eager little creatures ; but still there was not a rigid 
division of labour, for some of them, whose proceedings I watched, 
acted at one time as carriers of pellets, and at another as miners, and 
all shortly afterwards assumed the office of conveyers of the spoil. 
In about two hours all the nests of Formic were rifled, though not 
completely, of their contents, and I turned towards the army of Ecitons, 
which were carrying away the mutilated remains. For some distance 
there were many separate lines of them moving along the slope of the 
bank ; but a short distance off these all converged, and then formed one 
close and broad column, which continued for some sixty or seventy yards 
and terminated at one of those large termitariums already described in 
a former chapter as being constructed of a material as hard as stone. The 
