BflTTLE BETWEEH BflTS. 



WHILST reclining one beautiful May afternoon in the 

 shade of an oak that stood on the outskirts of a 

 thicket, my attention was arrested by the activity and 

 bustle presented by a colony of yellow ants, which proved 

 to be the Formica flav a, so common everywhere. 



Scattered indiscriminately about were numberless larvse in 

 various stages of growth, and not a few immobile pupae, 

 that had been brought up from subterranean domiciles 

 by thoughtful nurses, while here and there were a dozen or 

 more ants, but recently escaped from their mummy-cases, 

 basking in the sun's warmth, preparatory to entering upon 

 the duties of the formicarium. 



The very picture of restlessness and anxiety were these 

 full-grown neuters. That something was transpiring, or was 

 about to transpire, seemed not unlikely, for ovae, larvae and 

 pupae were being quickly carried to places of concealment 

 in the earth, or hustled away among the entangling and inter- 

 lacing grasses. 



Looking about for the cause of all this excitement, the 

 truth at once became painfully apparent. Three large, burly 

 ants, representatives of Formica subterranea, a black species 

 that is everywhere abundant in wooded regions, had intruded 

 their obnoxious presence into the happy colony, bent, as it 

 was evident, on pillage or slaughter. 



Were plunder the inspiring motive, these giant invaders 

 were not slow to learn that their weaker kin, though lacking 

 their strength, could more than match them in cunning and 

 stratagem. 



