186 EDGE OF THE JUNGLE 



branches, and following back along its path, I 

 suddenly perceived the rarest of sights — an Atta 

 nest entrance boiling with the excitement of a 

 flight of winged kings and queens. So engrossed 

 were the ants that they paid no attention to me, 

 and I was able to creep up close and kneel with- 

 in two feet of the hole. The main nest was 

 twenty feet away, and this was a special exit 

 made for the occasion — a triumphal gateway 

 erected far away from the humdrum leaf traffic. 

 The two-inch, arched hole led obliquely down 

 into darkness, while brilliant sunshine illumined 

 the earthen take-off and the surrounding mass 

 of pink Mazaruni primroses. Up this corridor 

 was coming, slowly, with dignity, as befitted the 

 occasion, a pageant of royalty. The king males 

 were more active, as they were smaller in size 

 than the females, but they were veritable giants 

 in comparison with the workers. The queens 

 seemed like beings of another race, with their 

 great bowed thorax supporting the folded wings, 

 heads correspondingly large, with less jaw devel- 

 opment, but greatly increased keenness of vis- 

 ion. In comparison with the Minims, these 

 queens were as a human being one hundred feet 

 in hei^rht. 



