34 TWO CHAPTERS ON ANTS. 



larva, and slowly worrying its life out. Ev- 

 ery little while an ant comes across the 

 drive from the nest, as if to see how his 

 comrades are getting on, and usually stays 

 and assists in trying to kill the game. By 

 the time that it is nearly dead a largo force 

 are on hand, and they drag it to the nest 

 some fifteen feet distant more quickly than 

 they did the earth-worm. 



On the morning of the 9th the red soldiers 

 start in full force, and keep in line until they 

 have gone about twenty yards. Here they 

 disperse, and seem to be hunting over the 

 ground ; but this proves a fruitless advent- 

 ure, and they return home in line empty- 

 handed. In an hour or so they again form 

 a line and start in another direction, this 

 time halting about thirty feet from the nest 

 among some dry oak leaves. Here they at- 

 tack a colony of yellow ants apparently as 

 large and strong as themselves; but they 

 prove to be great cowards, and skulk among 

 the leaves, and flee in all directions. Prob- 

 ably not more than a dozen are killed. The 

 nest does not prove to be very rich in Iarva3 

 and pupse, for in about an hour it is plun- 

 dered. Here, too, as in the case of the black 

 ants, several adults are carried to the nest 

 unhurt. The next day after the raid the 



