32 TROPIC DAYS 



bridge across the perilous gap. At one particular gate, 

 which is opened and shut many times a day, it has 

 been noticed that the ants never seem to resent inter- 

 ruptions or to be vexed b}- them. If they happen to 

 get on the hands or fingers, they submit to be restored 

 to the gate; but go to the formicary on the mango- 

 tree half a dozen ^''ards away and offer a friendly finger, 

 and you will find dozens of pugnacious individuals 

 ready to defend their home. Do they recognise that 

 they are but pilgrims of the fence, enjoying certain 

 rights on sufferance, that it is a path of peace on which 

 belligerents must not intrude, a neutral tract under 

 the custody of the law of nations, which ants, as well 

 as men, must respect ? Whatsoever the reason, the 

 deportment of the truculent ant on the highway is 

 that of an upholder of peace at any price. It is to be 

 doubted if the animal world holds more illustrious 

 examples of heroism than a green tree-ants' nest. Two 

 or three individuals may be despised as long as their 

 assaults are confined to the less sensitive parts of the 

 body; but let a huge colony up among the branches 

 of an orange-tree be disturbed, and the first army corps 

 instantly mobilised, and it will not be cowardly hastil}^ 

 to retreat. So eager for the fra}^ are the warriors, 

 so well organised, so completely devoted to the self- 

 sacrificing duty of protecting the community, that two 

 distinct methods of advance and attack are exercised 

 forthwith in the midst of what appears to be calamitous 

 confusion. Swarming on the extremity of the branches 

 among which the formicary is constructed, the defenders, 

 projecting their terminal segments as far into space 

 as possible, eject formic acid in the direction of the 

 enem}'. Like shrapnel from machine guns, the liquid 

 missile sweeps a considerable area. Against the sun- 

 light it appears as a continuous spray, and should one 



