] I THE WAYS OF THE ANT | [ 



do when the whistle blows. Their day at that 

 sort of labor was therefore only about seven or 

 eight hours, as if some of the principles of Labor 

 Union were in vogue among these brigands. They 

 would kidnap only so many hours a day. The 

 slaves, however, kept at work until dusk. Perhaps 

 the red ants continued inside the nest, disposing 

 of the pupas captured during the day, but they 

 brought in none after five o'clock. 



Three days had elapsed from the close of this 

 raid when, for some reason, the entire colony of 

 red ants deserted the hill, carrying the newly cap- 

 tured slaves and their pupae with them. They took 

 up their abode under a cement walk, an unusual 

 place for red ants, and a week of incessant labor 

 was consumed in carrying the black ants and pupa? 

 to the new site. This was, then, a bona fide exodus 

 of an entire community. 



Under the cement walk to which the colony 

 of red ants had migrated with their slaves were nu- 

 merous nests of small brown ants. These swarmed 

 one sultry afternoon, and as they came pouring 

 out of the cracks in the walk and clustered on the 

 surface, the fierce red ants fell upon them with 

 fury, slaying hundreds and leaving most of the 



109 



