238 



THE TROPICAL WORLD. 



corner-posts of the hut, so that it is quite impossible to dislodge 

 him. 



The devastations of the house-ants are peculiarly hateful to 

 the naturalist, whose colleotions, often gathered with so much 

 danger and trouble, they pitilessly destroy. Eichard Schomburgk 

 suspended boxes with insects from the ceiling ^ by threads 

 strongly rubbed over with arsenic soap ; but when, on the 

 following morning, he wished to examine his treasures, instead 

 of his rare and beautiful specimens he found nothing but a host 

 of villanous red ants, who crawling down the threads, had found 

 means to invade the boxes and utterly to destroy their 

 valuable contents. 



FORAGING ANTS. 



In countless multitudes the Driver or Foraging ants break 

 forth from the primeval forest, marching through the country 

 in compact order, like a well-drilled army. Every creature they 

 meet in their way falls a victim to their dreadful onslaught — 

 rats, mic3, lizards, and even the huge python, when in a state 

 of surfeit from recent feeding. If a house obstructs their route, 

 they do not turn out of the way, but go quite through it. 

 Though they sting cruelly when molested, the West Indian 

 planter is not sorry to see them in his house, for it is but a 

 passing visit, and their appearance is the death-warrant for 



