THE JTATURALIST ON THE RIVER "AMAZONS. 



761 



mode of conveying intelligence. When I 

 interfered with the column or abstracted an 

 individual from it, news of the disturbance 

 "was very quickly communicated to a dis- 

 tance of several yards toward the rear, and 

 the column at that point commenced retreat- 

 ing. All the small-headed workers carried 

 in their jaws a little cluster of white mag- 

 gots, which I thought at the time might be 

 joung larvsB of their own colony, but after- 

 ward found reason to conclude were the 

 gruhs of some other species whose nests they 

 had been plundering, the procession being 

 most likely not a migration, but a column on 

 a. marauding expedition. 



The position of the large headed individuals 

 in the marching column was rather curious. 

 There was one of these extraordinary fellows 

 lo about a score of the smaller class ; none 

 of them carried anything in their mouths, 

 but all trotted along empty-handed and out- 

 side of the column, at pretty regular inter- 

 vals from each other, like subaltern officers 

 in a marching regiment of soldiers. It was 

 <>asy to be tolerably exact in this observation, 

 for their shining white heads made them 

 very conspicuous among the rest, bobbing 

 wp and down as the column passed over the 

 inequalities of the road. I did not see them 

 change their position or take any notice of 

 their small-headed comrades marching in 

 die column, and when I disturbed the line 

 (hey did not prance forth or show fight so 

 eagerly as the others. These large-headed 

 members of the community have been con- 

 sidered by some authois as a soldier class, 

 like the similarly-armed caste in Termites ; 

 but I found no proof of this, at least in the 

 present species, as they always seemed to be 

 rather less pugnacious than the worker- 

 minors, and their distorted jaws disabled 

 them from fastening on a plane surface like 

 the skin of an attacking animal. I am in- 

 clined, however, to think that they may act, 

 in a less direct way, as protectors of the com- 

 munity, namely, as indigestible morsels to 

 the flocks of ant-thrushes which follow the 

 marching columns of these Ecitons, and are 

 the most formidable enemies of the species. 

 It is possible that the hooked and twisted 

 jaws of the large-headed class may be effec- 

 tive weapons of annoyance when in the giz- 

 zards or stomachs of these birds, but I unfor- 

 tunately omitted to ascertain whether this 

 was really the fact. 



The life of these Ecitons is not all work, 

 i'or I frequently saw them very leisurely em 

 ployed in a way that looked like recreation. 

 When this happened, the place was always a 

 sunny nook in the forest. The main colum * 

 of the army and the branch columns, at these 

 times, were in their ordinary relative posi- 

 tions ; but instead of pressing forward eager- 

 ly, and plundering right and left, they 

 seemed to have been all smitten with a sud- 

 den fit of laziness. Some were walking 

 slowly about, others were brushing their an- 

 tenna with their fore feet ; but the drollest 

 sight was their cleaning one another. Here 

 and there an ant was seen stretching forth 

 first one leg and then another, to be brushed 



and washed by one or more of its comrades, 

 who performed the task by passing the limb 

 between the jaws and the tongue, fini&iug 

 by giving the antennae a friendly wipe. It 

 was a curious spectacle, and one well calcu- 

 lated to increase one's amazement at the 

 similarity between the instinctive actions of 

 ants and the acts of rational beings, a simi- 

 larity which must have been brought about 

 by two different processes of development of 

 the primary qualities of mind. The actions 

 of these ants looked like simple indulgence 

 in idle amusement. Have these little crea- 

 tures, then, an excess of energy beyond what 

 is required for labors absolutely necessary to 

 the welfare of their species, and do they thus 

 expend it in mere sportiveness, like young 

 lambs or kittens, or in idle whims like 

 rational beings? It is probable that these 

 hours of relaxation and cleaning may be in- 

 dispensable to the effective performance of 

 their harder labors ; but while looking at 

 them, the conclusion that the ants were en- 

 gaged merely in play was irresistible 



Eciton prwdator. This is a small dark-red- 

 dish species, very similar to the common red 

 stinging ant of England. It differs from all 

 other Ecitons in its habit of hunting, not in 

 columns, but in dense phalanxes consisting 

 of myriads of individuals, and was first met 

 with at Ega, where it is very common. 

 Nothing in insect movements is more striking 

 than the rapid march of these large and com- 

 pact bodies. Wherever they pass, all the 

 rest of the animal world is thrown into a 

 state of alarm. They stream along the 

 ground and climb to the summits of all the 

 lv)wer trees, searching every leaf to its apex, 

 and whenever they encounter a mass of de- 

 caying vegetable matter, where booty is plen- 

 tiful, they concentrate, like other Ecitons, 

 all their forces upon it, the dense phalanx of 

 shining and quickly-moving bodies, as it 

 spreads over the surface, looking like a Hood 

 of dark-red liquid. They soon penetrate 

 every part of the confused heap, and then, 

 gathering together again in marching order, 

 onward they move. All soft-bodied and in- 

 active insects fall an easy prey to them, and, 

 like other Ecitons, they tear their victims in 

 pieces for facility of carriage. A phalanx of 

 this species, when passing over a tract of 

 smooth ground, occupies a space of from 

 four to six square yards ; on examining the 

 ants closely they are seen to move, net alto- 

 gether in one straightforward direction, but 

 in variously spreading contiguous columns, 

 now separating a little from the general mass, 

 now reuniting with it. The margins of the 

 phalanx spread out at times like a cloud of 

 skirmishers from the flanks of an army. I 

 was never able to find the hive of this spe- 

 cies. 



Blind Ecitons. I will now give a short ac- 

 count of the blind species of Eciton. None 

 of the foregoing kinds have eyes of tbe facet- 

 ted or compound structure, such as are usual 

 in insects, and which ordinary ants (Formica) 

 are furnished with, but all are provided with 

 organs of vision composed each of a single 

 lens Connecting them with the utterly blind 



