56 TWO CHAPTERS ON ANTS. 



making a round of inspection ; lie walks 

 around the outside of the circle of feeding 

 ants, touching each with his antennae as he 

 proceeds, until he conies to a stranger, when 

 he immediately seizes her, shakes her rough- 

 ly, and lets her go. In no instance have I 

 seen him kill one of these ants; he simply 

 drives her away. The nurses do the same 

 thing if they happen to come in contact 

 with a stranger even if she is one of their 

 own species but they do not make it their 

 business to go round the circle and touch 

 each ant as their masters do. 



If a black ant wanders away from the 

 work of excavation, it is almost certain to 

 be found and brought back by one of the 

 numerous alert masters, who simply touch- 

 es the slave with his antennae, when she 

 crouches before him and rolls up. The mas- 

 ter carries her to one of the entrances and 

 disappears within, as if to discipline her. 

 At all events, the slave soon comes out with 

 a bib of earth in her mandibles, and now 

 continues to work. This was repeated a 

 great many times. I often marked the ants, 

 so there could be no mistake about the one 

 carried in soon coming out and keeping at 

 work. Occasionally one of the masters 

 would come out of an opening with a slave 



