1 1 TRINIDAD. 



carry down ; one only, or a dozen or more, taking charge of 

 each piece, according to the size. The crazy ants neither bite 

 nor sting. 



The hunter and parasol ants deserve peculiar notice. The 

 former, or visiting ant, called also Fourmi ckasseuse, is not, I 

 conceive, the Atta cephalotes of Fabricius, because the head is not 

 comparatively large ; it is of a brown colour, but the abdomen of 

 a lighter hue than the thorax and head ; when full grown it is 

 about one- third of an inch long. This ant is very active and 

 quick in its movements, stings most severely, and may be said to 

 be excessively fierce in its attack. It is exclusively carnivorous, 

 and, after killing its prey, divides it into portions, each ant carry- 

 ing its share of the spoil. The hunter ants do not build nests, but 

 choose recesses in some decayed tree, or among dry leaves, forming 

 a sort of mass, sometimes two feet in diameter, where they con- 

 gregate during the dry months ; in fact, they are nomadic, being 

 always engaged in some predatory excursions, and preferring the 

 wet to the dry seasons for their expeditions; they carry with 

 them their larvse close to the body. The army, or tribe, on 

 starting, marches on a frontage of from about five to six feet, by 

 ten feet deep ; then follow three or four columns, which after- 

 wards are formed into two, and sometimes only a single section, 

 this rearguard being sometimes half a mile from the expeditionary 

 corps actually engaged in spoliation. The latter beats up the 

 ground, climbing the smaller trees, groping into every hole, 

 under every leaf, and leaving nothing unvisited. Not only 

 insects and the smaller animals fiy in every direction, but even 

 the larger species are compelled to give way ; for the hunter ants 

 kill every living thing in the way of their march, young birds in 

 their nests, animals too young or too weak to escape, cock- 

 roaches, scorpions, crickets, &c, and carry away the larva? of 

 insects and their nymphs; they dare not penetrate, however, 

 into the nests of the parasol ants, which defend their townships 

 bravely. The hunters are generally accompanied by anis, 

 thrushes, and other birds which feed on insects ; and during the 

 bustle of their ravages, there is a sort of crackling, occasioned not 

 only by the movements of the ants themselves, but also by the 

 frightened insects that flee in all directions. The hunter ants 

 sometimes visit houses, where they destroy an immense quantity 

 of vermin ; rats, mice, cockroaches, centipedes, scorpions, 



