NATURE'S CRAFTSMEN 



the enemy, or the defence may appear too formidable 

 for the attacking force, which must return empty-hand- 

 ed. But we are here following a typical successful 

 assault of our American Sanguine Slave-maker, as the 

 author has seen it/ A hundred yards distant is a 

 Tuscan village. The route thereto lies across the edge 

 of a grove, over a foot-path, along a fallen tree, imder 

 whose shelter and shaded by tufts of grass is the devoted 

 commune. It is feeble in numbers, and there is a bare 

 show of defence upon the outskirts as the freebooters 

 hurl themselves upon the hill and plunge into the open 

 gates. The villagers flee at the first onset through 

 unassailed or secret passages. Some run the gantlet 

 through the assaulting ranks. All who can, carry a 

 part of the family treasures — eggs, larvae, and pupae. 

 Like their brobdingnagian brothers of the human race 

 when disaster befalls, their first care is for their offspring. 

 The fugitives mount into near-by clumps of low wood- 

 plants, whence they look down upon the devastation of 

 their home — with what feelings? For one must sup- 

 pose that the midgets do feel, though sometimes he 

 would fain hope otherwise. 



Meanwhile the invaders issue from the gates, bearing 

 in their jaws the Tuscan young, and occasionally an 

 adult. They take the home trail, but not in ordered 

 ranks. It is go-as-you-please now, the "route-step" of 

 marching soldiers. They are welcomed back by their 

 black confederates, who receive the captives and take 

 them — their very own sisters, perhaps — into the domes- 

 tic quarters. The soldiers hurry back to the scene of 



* I have never seen a foray of the Shining Slave-maker (Polyer- 

 gus lucidus), but her method is substantially that of the Sanguine 

 ant. 



74 



