NATURE'S CRAFTSMEN 



alive with the winged throngs. They were watched 

 until the deep evening gloom prevented observation. 



Next morning all was quiet at the nest. The wild 

 rush of the marriage flight had ebbed as rapidly as it 

 rose. The slaves were closing the doors and restoring 

 the embankments. Beneath the glass the large covered 

 apartments, a day before so full of life, were vacant. 

 In one corner, which had been used as a sort of kitchen- 

 midden, was a good handful of cast-off wings. After 

 the flight the workers had sallied forth, seized the 

 females within reach, dragged them into the nest, and 

 established them as associate queens. Scouts were still 

 out hunting for such recruits; and every little while one 

 would be brought in — now led by an antenna, now 

 dragged by a leg, and again carried bodily in a worker's 

 jaws, which clasped her captive, whose form was bent 

 like a letter C, her abdomen thrust beneath her porter's 

 forelegs. And always, ere this capture, the queenling 

 had been dispossessed of her wings. 



And now, what next? I knew, said my informant,' 

 from former observations that a marriage flight would 

 soon be followed by a sally of red soldiers in martial 

 column to some negro colony, which they would assault 

 and plunder, and kidnap the young. For this sight I 

 remained, and witnessed it, greatly to my satisfaction, 

 though much to the ill-content of the glossy black ants 

 {Formica subsericea) whose home was raided. But the 

 story of slave-making ants must wait for another 

 chapter. 



The natural impulse which starts the marriage migra- 

 tion from parent nests seizes multitudes in a neighbor- 

 hood at the same time. As a result, in sections where 

 the normal increase is not hindered by tilling the ground, 



24 



