IDLE DAYS 133 



drop it upon them: down, down, down it drops; 

 oh, simple, unsuspecting coots, beware! Splash 

 it falls in the middle of the flock, sending up a 

 column of water ten feet high, and then what a 

 panic seizes on the birds ! They tumble over as if 

 shot, dive down incontinently, then reappearing, 

 pause not to look about them, but spring away 

 with all that marvelous flutter and splutter of 

 which coots alone are capable; the wings beating 

 rapidly, the long legs and lobed feet sprawling 

 behind or striking the surface, away they scud, 

 flying and tumbling over the water, spreading 

 needless alarm through flocks of pin-tails, shrill- 

 voiced widgeons, and stately black-necked swans, 

 but never pausing until the opposite shore of the 

 river is reached. 



Pleased with the success of my experiment, I 

 quit the precipice, to the great relief of the blue 

 pigeons and of the little hawks ; these last having 

 viewed my proceedings with great jealousy, for 

 they have already taken possession of a hole in 

 the rock with a view to nidification. 



Further on in my rambles I discover a nest of 

 the large black leaf -cutting ant (CEcodoma) found 

 over the entire South American continent and a 

 leading member of that social tribe of insects of 

 which it has been said that they rank intellectually 

 next to ourselves. Certainly this ant, in its ac- 

 tions, simulates man's intellect very closely, and 

 not in the unpleasant manner of species having 

 warrior castes and slaves. The leaf-cutter is 



