WITH ARMY ANTS 233 



part of the small ants was unexpected. I 

 glanced back at their hill and saw them uncon- 

 cernedly piling up grains as if nothing had oc- 

 curred to disturb them. I wondered if, with 

 senses perfectly attuned, with an enlarging- 

 glass ability of observation, one might not find 

 still lesser communities which would in their 

 turn consider the little brown ants as giants, 

 and on the space of a pin's head attack them 

 and fly at their throats. 



A species of silvery-gray ant which was abun- 

 dant in the glade was an object of special 

 enmity, and even after one of these was killed 

 and being carried along, passing army ants 

 would rush up and give it a vicious, unnecessary 

 nip. One such ant made its escape from the 

 hold of a small worker; but before it had taken 

 ten steps it was actually buried under a rolling 

 mass of army ants. The flying leap with which 

 these athletes make their tackle would delight 

 the heart of any football coach, although their 

 succeeding activities belong rather to savage 

 warfare. Termites, or so-called white ants, are, 

 curiously enough, immune from attack. Yet 

 these slow-moving, fat-bodied creatures would 

 seem first-rate food, and the fight which they 



