46 A NATURALIST IN HIMALAYA 



their activity, compensate for their lack of numbers. 

 To see them hurrying from their nest with a load 

 of earth, dashing away to the refuse heap and darting 

 back again with incredible speed, was to think that in 

 their work of excavation they were engaged in a con- 

 test against time. One of these ants, which I marked, 

 carried out from the interior of the nest no less than 

 ten loads of earth in six minutes, and I do not think 

 a harvester could undertake anything approaching 

 such rapid work as that. Moreover, in their habits 

 they score over the harvesters, for they not only carry 

 the particles from the nest, but also possess a most 

 valuable habit of kicking back the loose earth from 

 the mouth of the nest in the same way as a dog kicks 

 back the earth when rooting at a burrow. They are 

 diggers as well as carriers, and by the former process 

 they gain a great advantage, for, in each individual 

 journey from the nest, the ant can confine its efforts 

 to a large particle, and all the smaller fragments, 

 which to the harvester would necessitate innumerable 

 journeys, can be swept backward with its feet. 



A harvester, when it casts its load of earth upon 

 the refuse heap, has no further interest but to return 

 for another load. The carnivorous ant, on the other 

 hand, is more attentive to the vicinity of its nest ; it 

 often spends a little time amongst the refuse, dragging 

 the larger fragments further away and kicking back 

 little clouds of dust as though it was trying to make 

 things neat and tidy, and above all to prevent 

 the earth from falling back again into the nest. In 

 this act they often display a division of labour. They 

 detail three or four of their members whose sole duty 

 it is to pick away the larger pebbles, sweep back the 



