CARNIVOROUS ANTS 53 



gaining any special object. However, one day in a 

 nest of this species which I had under close observa- 

 tion, I did detect a reason for these strange efforts. 

 I noticed that at short intervals one or two workers 

 emerged from the nest each carrying a companion in 

 its jaws. They seemed to behave with more purpose 

 than usual. Each emerged hurriedly ; each made off 

 in the same direction ; each acted with enthusiasm as 

 though it had an object in view. I followed one of 

 these ants and found that it conveyed its companion 

 to another nest of the same species seventy-two feet 

 distant. The other ants were engaged in the same 

 task. A continual transfer of workers was in progress 

 from nest to nest, and the transferred ants were always 

 carried by their companions. The supported ant lay 

 passive and resistless. It hung back downwards 

 beneath its supporter, with its slender legs entwined 

 round the body and jaws clutching tightly the jaws 

 of its companion. 



I have some doubts as to why this transfer of ants 

 should take place from nest to nest and why so strange 

 a mode of transit should be necessary. I do not think 

 that the ants of the one nest were stealing workers from 

 the other nest, for they acted quite openly and were 

 not treated as enemies, nor did the transferred workers 

 make any resistance as they presumably would if they 

 were being carried surreptitiously away. Nor could it 

 have been a case of slaves transporting their masters, 

 for both the carriers and the carried were of the same 

 species. I frequently observed this transference on 

 subsequent occasions and found it to be a general 

 habit of this ant. I suspect that it is a modified 

 migration ; a mode of founding a new nest when the 



