SLAVE-MAKING ANTS. 23 



on to the sticks pieces of dried leaves, and 

 a butterfly's wing nearly two inches across, 

 small pebbles and clumps of earth, and one 

 brings a cherry-stone ; now a red soldier has 

 found a piece of anthracite coal an inch in 

 length and half an inch in thickness ; it lies 

 nearly two feet away from the entrance ; he 

 walks over and around it, and tries it with 

 his mandibles as if taking its dimensions; 

 he leaves it, and I lose sight of him among 

 the busy toilers ; but very soon a large force 

 of workers, both black and red, have sur- 

 rounded this piece of coal; it is jagged and 

 irregular in outline, thus affording places 

 for the workers to fasten their mandibles. 

 They move it a few inches, and now a tuft 

 of stiff grass is in the way ; they drop the 

 coal, and some pass over and others around 

 the tuft; back they come and again seize 

 it, but evidently the workers are of two 

 miuds ; a part of them are determined to lift 

 it over, and the others are equally deter- 

 mined to take it round the grass on a com- 

 paratively smooth road. After several in- 

 effectual attempts to lift it over, they final- 

 ly give up and join the others in taking it 

 round. At last the feat is accomplished; 

 this great weight is placed over the en- 

 trance, as if to hold the other material in 



