82 EDGE OF THE JUNGLE 



one or two legs gone, others had lost an antenna 

 or had an injured body. They seemed not to 

 know what to do — wandering around, now and 

 then giving one another a half-hearted lick. In 

 the midst was one which had died, and two others, 

 each badly injured, were trying to tug the body 

 along to the edge of the board. This they suc- 

 ceeded in doing after a long series of efforts, 

 and down and down fell the dead ant. It was 

 promptly picked up by several kitchen-midden- 

 ites and unceremoniously thrown on the pile of 

 nest-debris. A load of booty had been dumped 

 among the cripples, and as each wandered close 

 to it, he seemed to regain strength for a moment, 

 picked up the load, and then dropped it. The 

 sight of that which symbolized almost all their 

 life-activity aroused them to a momentary for- 

 getfulness of their disabilities. There was no 

 longer any place for them in the home or in the 

 columns of the legionaries. They had been court- 

 martialed under the most implacable, the most 

 impartial law in the world — the survival of the 

 fit, the elimination of the unfit. 



The time came when we had to get at our 

 stored supplies, over which the army ants were 

 such an effective guard. I experimented on a 



