27^ STRANGE DWELLINGS. 



was obtained. The Ants are possessed of strength which seems 

 gigantic when compared with their size, carrying away sticks 

 four or five times as large as themselves, and never failing to 

 pounce upon any grub or insect that might happen to be lurking 

 beneath their shelter. They always carried such burdens longi- 

 tudinally, grasping them with their jaws and legs, and passing 

 the load under the body. Some of these roads are more than 

 two hundred yards in length. 



Meanwhile, the other Ants were busy with the fowl. Beginning 

 at the base of the beak, they contrived to pull out the feathers 

 one by one, until they stripped it regularly backwards, working 

 over the head, along the neck, and so on to the body. This was 

 evidently a very hard task, as the insects did not possess sufficient 

 strength to pull out the feathers by main force, and were conse- 

 quently obliged to grub them up laboriously by the roots. The 

 next business was to pull the bird to pieces, and at this work 

 they were left. Unfortunately the experiment was spoiled by 

 the natives, who stole the fowl, thinking that the Ants had eaten 

 so many of their poultry that they were justified in retaliation. 

 Others chose to excuse themselves by saying that they thought 

 the fowl to be a fetish offering to the Ants, and accordingly took 

 it away from them. 



The large iguana lizards fall victims to the Driver Ants, and 

 so do all reptiles, not excluding snakes. It seems, from the per- 

 sonal observations of Dr. Savage, that the Ants commence their 

 attack on the snake by biting its eyes, and so blinding the poor 

 reptile, which only flounders and writhes helplessly on one spot, 

 instead of gliding away to a distance. 



It is said by the natives, that when the great python has 

 crushed its prey in its terrible folds, it does not devour it at 

 once, but makes a large circuit, at least a mile in diameter, in 

 order to see whether an army of Driver Ants is on the march. 

 If so, it glides off, and abandons its prey, which will soon be 

 devoured by the Ants ; but if the ground is clear, it returns to 

 the crushed animal, swallows it, and gives itself to repose until 

 the process of digestion be completed. Whether this assertion 

 be true or not, Dr. Savage cannot say ; but it is here given in 



