CHAP. X. MINING ANTS F. CUNICULARIA. 327 



explore the ground with their antennae. The negro 

 colony the object of their search is soon discovered; 

 the sentinels of which, keeping guard at the avenues, 

 dart upon the foremost of their assailants with incon- 

 ceivable fury. The alarm being given to the assailed 

 city, crowds of its swarthy inhabitants rush forth from 

 all the avenues: but their valour is exerted in vain; for 

 the besiegers, suddenly darting forward, compel them 

 to retreat within, and seek shelter in the lowest story : 

 great numbers of the enemy thus enter the gates, while 

 others make a breach in the walls, through which the 

 victorious army marches into the heart of the city. In 

 a few minutes, by the same passages, they hastily evacu- 

 ate it, each carrying off in its mouth a larva, or pupa, 

 which it lias seized, in spite of its unhappy guardians : 

 thus laden, they return home by their former route. 



(331.) There is another community of ants which 

 these marauders attack for the same object ; these have 

 been called, by Messrs. Kirby and Spence, the miners 

 (Formica cunicularia), which, being much more 

 courageous than the last, require more caution in the 

 attack. On these occasions, the rufous ants are ob- 

 served to march in more compact columns ; and in 

 what the military term double quick time. On their 

 approach to the city of the miners, its inhabitants rush 

 out by millions, and attack them with great fury ; but 

 a chosen band of the assailants, watching their oppor- 

 tunity, force a passage through the contending parties, 

 and make direct for the interior, where they seize the 

 larvae and pupae, and then retreat as soon as possible : 

 but, on reaching the outside of the nest, they have to 

 defend their prize, which is often so vigorously con- 

 tested, that the robbers are obliged to relinquish their 

 booty. These mining ants seem to be a most courageous 

 race, darting upon their assailants with determined 

 fury, fighting them foot to foot, disputing every inch 

 of territory, and defending their progeny with the 

 greatest rage. When the kidnappers, laden with what 

 they can make off with, retire, they preserve the same 

 Y 4 



