THE ANIMAL KINGDOM. 173 



their bard ; for the younger Huber has described them with 

 as true poetry as we find in the tales of Homer or the 

 strophes of the Thebaid. 



We can see this in the description of one of these battles 

 taken verbatim from the Genevese savant. It took place 

 between two ant-colonies, situated a hundred paces from 

 each other. " I shall not say," exclaims Huber, " what 

 lighted up discord between these two republics, the one as 

 populous as the other; two empires do not possess a greater 

 number of combatants. The two armies met midway be- 

 tween their respective residences. Their serried columns 

 reached from the field of battle to the nest, and were two 



88. Honey-Ant Myrmecocyctus Mexicnnus. 



feet in width. An immense reserve thus supported the 

 fighting body, where thousands of ants, mounted on the 

 smallest eminences, fought two and two, attacking each 

 other by means of their jaws. Others carried off prisoners, 

 but not without rough struggles, for they knew the cruel 

 fate that awaited them so soon as they should reach the 

 hostile nest. 



" The field of battle, which extended over a space of 

 from two to three square feet, was strewed with dead bodies 



