Prey of the Ecitons 21 
approach of another, though of a much smaller, species, it 
would immediately run away. Probably this cowardly and 
unantly disposition has caused it to becomé the prey of the 
Eciton. At any rate, I never saw the Ecitons attack the 
nest of other species. 
The moving columns of Ecitons are composed almost 
entirely of workers of different sizes, but at intervals of two 
or three yards there are larger and lighter-coloured individuals 
that will often stop, and sometimes run a little backward, 
halting and touching some of the ants with their antenne. 
They look like officers giving orders and directing the march 
of the column. 
This species is often met with in the forest, not in quest of 
one particular form of prey, but hunting, like Eczton predator, 
only spread out over a much greater space of ground. 
Crickets, grasshoppers, scorpions, centipedes, wood-lice, 
cockroaches, and spiders are driven out from below the fallen 
leaves and branches. Many of them are caught by the ants; 
others that get away are picked up by the numerous birds 
that accompany the ants, as vultures follow the armies of 
the East. The ants send off exploring parties up the trees, 
which hunt for nests of wasps, bees, and probably birds. If 
they find any, they soon communicate the intelligence to the 
army below, and a column is sent up immediately to take 
possession of the prize. I have seen them pulling out the 
larvee and pupze from the cells of a large wasp’s nest, whilst 
the wasps hovered about, powerless, before the multitude of 
the invaders, to render any protection to their young. 
I have no doubt that many birds have acquired instincts 
to combat or avoid the great danger to which their young are 
exposed by the attacks of these and other ants. Trogons, 
parrots, toucans, mot-mots, and many other birds build in 
holes of trees or in the ground, and these, with their heads 
ever turned to the only entrance, are in the best possible 
position to pick off singly the scouts when they approach, 
thus effectually preventing them from carrying to the main 
army intelligence about the nest. Some of these birds, and 
especially the toucans, have bills beautifully adapted for 
picking up the ants before they reach the nest. Many of the 
smaller birds build on the branches of the bull’s-horn thorn, 
which is always thickly covered with small stinging honey- 
