46 HAUNTS AND HOBBIES 



evidently anxious to complete it quickly. They rushed 

 in and out, dropped their pellets, and returned for more 

 at quite racing speed. 



After looking on for some little while, I came for- 

 ward. My appearance evidently caused alarm. So 

 soon as the ants perceived me, the whole multitude at 

 once dropped their pellets, fled back to the hole, and 

 buried themselves in its furthest recesses. One or two, 

 however, must have remained near the entrance to 

 watch, for as soon as I retired again, then, in a minute 

 or so, the whole body of ants reappeared and resumed 

 their labours. I repeated the experiment once or twice, 

 and always with the same result : when I appeared, the 

 ants fled ; as soon as I had retired, they came out, 

 carrying their pellets as before. 



In this fear of man these burtunga ants are peculiar. 

 I never noticed the same fear exhibited by ants of any 

 other species. Nay, more, so far as my observation 

 goes, other species of ants not only exhibit no fear of 

 man, but do not even manifest any apparent conscious- 

 ness of man's presence. What is still more curious is 

 that these burtunga ants exhibit this fear of man only 

 when they are on the ground. When swarming about 

 the trees, I never saw them display the least appre- 

 hension when I approached them, or even show at 

 all by their movements that they were aware I had 

 done so. 



The tree that the burtunga ants most frequent is of a 

 species something resembling the "peepul," which is allied 

 in a way to our poplar. The tree has a smooth, light- 

 coloured bark and rather scanty foliage. The move- 



