232 THE HARMONIES OF NATURE. 



opposite margins meet at the under-surface of the midrib, 

 where they are secured by a glutinous matter. 



Nests of the Fungus Ant. 



The Coushie or Sauba Ant, which exists in Tropical America 

 in boundless profusion, will in a very short time strip off the 

 leaves of an entire field and carry them to its subterranean 

 abodes. Even where their nest is a mile distant from a planta- 

 tion, these depredators know how to find it, and soon form a 

 highway about half a foot broad, on which they keep up the 

 most active communications with the object of their attack. In 

 masterly order, side by side, one army is seen to move onward 

 towards the field, while another is returning to the nest, each 

 individual carrying in its jaws a circular piece of leaf, about the 

 size of a sixpence, which is held vertically by one of its edges 

 a circumstance from which the creature is also called the parasol 

 or umbrella ant. If the distance is too great, a party meets the 

 weary carriers halfway and relieves them of their load. Al- 

 though innumerable ants may thus be moving along, yet none 

 of them will ever be seen to be in the other's way, and all goes 

 on with the regularity of clockwork. A third party is no less 

 actively employed on the scene of destruction, cutting out cir- 

 cular pieces of the leaves, which as soon as they drop upon the 



