CnAi>. I. BURGLAR ANTS. 27 



their interior ; but smaller liillocks, covering other en- 

 trances to the same system of tunnels and chambers 

 may be found in sheltered places, and these are always 

 thatched with leaves, mingled with granules of earth. 

 The heavily-laden workers, each carrying its segment of 

 leaf vertically, the lower edge secured in its mandibles, 

 troop up and cast their burthens on the hillock ; another 

 relay of labourers place the leaves in position, covering 

 them with a layer of earthy granules, which are brought 

 one by one from the soil beneath. 



The underground abodes of this wonderful ant are 

 known to be very extensive. The Eev. Hamlet Clark 

 has related that the Sallba of Rio de Janeiro, a species 

 closely allied to ours, has excavated a tunnel under the 

 bed of the river Parahyba, at a place where it is as 

 broad as the Thames at London Bridge. At the 

 Magoary rice mills, near Para, these ants once pierced 

 the embankment of a large reservoir : the great body of 

 water which it contained escaped before the damage 

 could be repaired. In the Botanic Gardens, at Para, an 

 enterprising French gardener tried all he could think of 

 to extirpate the Saiiba. With this object he made fires 

 over some of the main entrances to their colonies, and 

 blew the fumes of sulphur down the galleries by means 

 of bellows. I saw the smoke issue from a great number 

 of outlets, one of which was 70 yards distant from the 

 place where the bellows were used. This shows how 

 extensively the undergrounjd galleries are ramified. 



Besides injuring and destroying young trees by de- 

 spoiling them of their foliage, the Saiiba ant is trouble- 

 some to the inhabitants from its habit of plundering the 



