ANTS — WABS. 81 



abandoned, and on opening it I found all the granaries empty 

 with one single exception, and this one was pierced by the 

 matted roots of grasses and other plants, and must therefore 

 have been long neglected by the ants. Strangely enough, not 

 one of the seeds in this deserted granary showed traces of 

 germination. 



No doubt some very pressing need is the cause of these 

 systematic raids in search of accumulations of seeds, and there 

 can be little doubt that the requirements of distinct colonies of 

 ants of the same species are often different even at the same 

 season and date. Thus these warring colonies of ants were 

 active on many days when the majority of the nests were com- 

 pletely closed ; and I have even seen these robbers staggering 

 along, enfeebled by the cold, and in wind and rain, when all 

 other ants were safe below ground. 



The agricultural ants of Texas do not appear to be 

 less pugnacious than their European congeners. Thus 

 Mac Cook says : — 



A young community has sometimes to struggle into perma- 

 nent prosperity through many perils. The following example 

 is found in the unpublished Lincecum manuscripts. One day a 

 new ant-city was observed to be located within ten or twelve 

 yards of a long-estabUshed nest, a distance that the doctor 

 thought would prove too near for peaceable possession — for the 

 agricultural seem to pre-empt a certain range of territory 

 around their formicary as their own, within which no intrusion 

 is allowed. He therefore concluded to keep these nests under 

 close observation, and visited them frequently. Only a day or 

 two had elapsed before he found that the inhabitants of the old 

 city had made war upon the new. They had surrounded it in 

 great numbers, and were entering, dragging out and killing the 

 citizens. The young colonists, who seemed to be of less size 

 than their adversaries, fought bravely, and, notwithstanding 

 they were overwhelmed by superior numbers, killed and maimed 

 many of their assailants. The parties were scattered in strug- 

 gling pairs over a space ten or fifteen feet around the city gate, 

 and the ground was strewed with many dead bodies. The new 

 colonists aimed altogether at cutting off the legs of their larger 

 foes, which they accomplished with much success. The old-city 

 warriors, on the contrary, gnawed and clipped off the heads and 

 abdomens of their enemies. Two days afterward the battle- 

 field was revisited, and many ants were found lying dead 

 tightly locked together by legs and mandibles, while hundreds 



G 



