FOOD AND FORAGING EXPEDITIONS. 177 



pellets, and the others receiving the pellets from their 

 comrades and carrying them away. 



On such occasions not only are the inhabitants of the 

 nest carried off, but the nest itself is pulled to pieces and 

 the fragments taken to the fortress of the depredators. 

 A double column of ants is always formed for this 

 purpose, one side of the column going towards the nest 

 for the purpose of plundering it of its contents, and the 

 other side going homewards laden with their spoil. 



Sometimes these foraging columns are overtaken by 

 the sudden floods which at times pour down from the 

 mountains and sweep over many miles of country. It 

 would seem as if the ant-army must be annihilated, but 

 the insects are equal to the emergency. They cling 

 together in spherical masses, often as large as cricket- 

 balls, and as a quantity of air is entangled among their 

 limbs they float lightly on the surface of the water, and 

 roll over and over in the current, waiting to be washed 

 ashore. The ant-ball then separates, and none of its 

 members are any the worse for their excursion. 



