22 HAUNTS AND HOBBIES 



the walls and the floors, apparently quite indifferent to 

 the burning sunshine, while my friends in the nests 

 pursue their morning and afternoon duties with just the 

 same regularity and energy as before. 



Of their energy I have recently had an example. A 

 day or two ago, on visiting the lower nest, I found that 

 the ants had laid out a new foraging path, or rather, 

 to speak quite correctly, they had extended the one 

 already existing. This path used to terminate at the 

 edge of the pampas grass. I found that it now went 

 partly through this grass, then made a sharp bend 

 round to the right, and continued on to a small patch 

 of akawa plants that stood about six or sev^en yards 

 away. I presumed from this that the seeds of the 

 akawas which grew among the pampas grass had 

 become exhausted, and that the ants had pushed on 

 to these other plants to obtain a further supply. On 

 examination I found my supposition was correct. The 

 akawa plants among the pampas grass had been so 

 thoroughly exhausted that among the whole number 

 I could not find one plant that now possessed a single 

 seed. 



The new plants seemed, however, to be yielding an 

 abundant supply of seeds, and the ants were most 

 actively engaged in gathering them and carrying them 

 home to their nest. As I watched the little creatures 

 I was struck, as I often was subsequently, with the ex- 

 treme rapidity with which their foraging tracks become 

 marked. This track could not have been frequented 

 for more than three, or at the most four, hours, for 

 there had been no trace of it when I had visited 



