"I I IN THE OPEN [ [ 



whatsoever it may be attached; nor does it cease 

 until they have deserted to the last one. 



But the life of ants is by no means given over 

 to these bucolic pursuits. While the meadow- 

 ants seem to be in the pastoral stage, the red 

 species and the large black ones are hunters and 

 warriors. The most sanguinary conflict I have 

 witnessed was a battle of the ants. Two armies of 

 the same black species met on the floor of a 

 neighbor's barn. The battle lasted throughout 

 several days, and both sides fought with indescrib- 

 able ferocity. Where they cam from was a 

 mystery, as no such colonies of ants had ever been 

 seen thereabouts. 



They appeared to be of the species Formica 

 pennsyfoanica which nests in trees, but these do 

 not occur in very large colonies, whereas the con- 

 tending hosts upon the barn floor were as the 

 Tartar hordes. The floor was strewn with strug- 

 gling pairs and with the dead and injured, and 

 always fresh forces were arriving. 



The persistence with which they fought is only 

 to be compared to that of bulldogs, while they 

 showed the ferocity of weasels. Once let an ant 

 get another by the thorax and she would continue 



IO2 



