760 . THE NATURALIST ON THE RIVER AMAZONS, 



I supposed to lie at the bottom of the broad trees, and therefore the nestlings of birds are 

 mine, and therefore in the middle of the base not much incommoded by them. The mode?, 

 of the stony hillock. of operation of these armies, which I ascer- 



Eciton drepanophora.The commonest spe- tained only after lung-continued observation^ 

 cies of foraging ants are the Eciton hamata is as follows. The main column, from four 

 and E. drepanophora, two kinds which re- to six deep, moves forward in a given dircc- 

 semble each other so closely that it requires tion, clearing the ground of att animal mat- 

 attentive examination to distinguish them ; ter, dead or alive, and throwing off here and 

 yet their armies never intermingle, although there a thinner column to forage for a short. 

 moving in the same woods and of ten crossing time on the flanks of the main armv, and ie- 

 each other's tracks. The two classes of enter it again after their task ^accomplished. 

 workers look, at first sight, quite distinct, on If some very rich place be encountered auy- 

 account of the wonderful amount of differ- where near the line of mareh for example, a. 

 ence between the largest individuals of the mass of rotten wood abounding in insect, 

 one, and the smallest of the other. There larvae a delay takes place,and a very strong 

 are dwarfs not more than one fifth of an inch force of ants is concentrated upon it. The 

 in length, with small heads and jaws, and excited creatures search every cranny and 

 giants half an inch in length, with mon- tear in pieces all the large grubs they drag to- 

 strously enlarged head and jaws, all belong- light. It is curious to see them attack. 

 ing to the same brood. There is not, how- wasps' nests, which are sometimes, built on. 

 ever, a distinct separation of classes, indi- low shrubs. They gnaw away the papery 

 viduals existing which connect together the covering to get at the larvae^ pupae, and: 

 two extremes. These Ecitons are seen in the newly -hatched wasps, and cut everything to- 

 pathways of the forest at all places on the tatters, regardless of the infuriated owners, 

 banks of the Amazons, traveling in dense which are flying about them, la bearing oft 

 columns of countless thousands. One or their spoil in fragments, the pieces are ap- 

 other of them is sure to be met with in a portioned to the carriers with some degree of" 

 woodland ramble, and it is to them, proba- regard to fairness of load, the dwarf staking; 

 bly, that the stories we read in books on the smallest pieces, and the strongest fellows- 

 South America apply, of ants clear ing houses with small heads the heaviest portions, 

 of vermin, although 

 of their entering hou 

 confined to the thickest ^ 



When the pedestrian falls in with a train tated from taking any part in the labor. The- 

 of these ants, the first signal given him is a armies never march far on a beaten path, but 

 twittering and restless movement of small seem to prefer the entangled thickets, where- 

 flocks of plain-colored birds (ant thrushes) in it is seldom possible to follow them. I have- 

 the jungle. If this be disregarded until he traced an army sometimes for half a mile or 

 advances a few steps farther, he is sure to more, but was never able to find one that 

 fall into trouble, and find himself suddenly had finished its day's course- and returned to. 

 attacked by numbers of the ferocious little its hive. Indeed, I never met with a hive v 

 creatures. They swarm up his legs with in- * whenever the Ecitous were seen they were- 

 credible rapidity, each one driving its pincer- always on the march, 



like jaws into his skin, and with the purchase i thought one d&y, at Villa Nova, that I 

 thus obtained, doubling in its tail and stinging bad come upon a migratory horde of this in- 

 with all its might. There is no course left defatigable ant The; place was a tract of 

 but to run for it ; if he is accompanied by open ground near the river side, just outsidee 

 natives, they will be sure to give the alarm, the edge of the forest, and surrounded by 

 cryinit, " Tauoca 1" and scampering at full rocks and shrubbery. A dense- column of 

 speed to the other end of the column of ants. Ecitons was seen extending from the rocks 

 The tenacious insects who have secured bn one side of the little haven, traversing the 

 themselves to his legs then have to be plucked open space, and ascending the opposite de- 

 off one by one, a task which is generally not clivity. The length of the procession was- 

 accomplished without pulling them in twain, from sixty to seventy yards, and yet neither 

 and leaving heads and jaws sticking in the van nor rear was visible. All were moving 

 wounds. in one and the same direction, except a few 



The errand of the vast ant-armies is plun- individuals OH the outside of t&e column,, 

 der, as in the case of Eciton legionis ; but which were running rearward, trotting along 

 from their moving always among dense for a short distance, and then turning again 

 thickets their proceedings are not so easy to to follow the same course as the main body, 

 observe as in that species. Wherever they But these rearward movements Were going: 

 move, the whole animal world is set in corn- on continually from one end to the other of 

 motion, and every creature tries to get out of the line, and there was every appearance of" 

 their way. But it is especially the various this being a means of keeping up a common: 

 tribes of winged insects that have cause for understanding among all the members of the- 

 fear, such as heavy bodied spiders, ants of army, for the retrograding ants stopped veiy 

 other species, maggots, caterpillars, larva? of often for a moment to touch one or ether of 

 cockroaches, and so forth, all of which live their onward-moving comrades with their 

 under fallen leaves, or in decaying wood, antennas, a proceeding which has been ne- 

 The Ecitons do not mount very high on,. triced in other ants, and supposed to be their 



