VARIOUS SPECIES. 123 
side almost joins it. The branch on the further side 
must be lower on the ground, so that, as they form the 
bridge, they begin it from the higher side. 
These bashikouay do smell things a long way off, and 
they are guided by their sense of smell. They are quite 
large, often the ordinary-sized ones being half an inch 
long, and are armed with very powerful fore-legs and 
large strong jaws, or nippers, with which they bite. The 
head is almost if not quite as large as the body; the 
large ones are almost one inch in length. The kind of 
THE BASHIKOUAY ANT, MAGNIFIED TO TWICE ITS NATURAL SIZE. 
which I have spoken is dark brown in color, but I have 
found in the mountains of the interior a somewhat 
larger species, almost black, and intensely voracious. 
Besides these two there is still another species of bash- 
ikouay, which I have only met two or three times in — 
the mountains south of the equator. It is of a great 
size, at least double the size of the one I have just 
spoken to you about. The body is grayish-white in col- 
or, the head of reddish-black; its fangs are very power- 
