34 Ants. 



"On June 17, 1804," he says, "while walking in 

 the environs of Geneva between four and five in 

 the evening, I observed close at my feet, traversing 

 the road, a legion of Amazon Ants. They moved 

 in a body with considerable rapidity, and occupied 

 a space of from eight to ten inches in length by 

 three or four in breadth. In a few minutes they 

 quitted the road, passed a thick hedge, and entered 

 a pasture ground, where I followed them. They 

 wound along the grass without straggling, and 

 their column remained unbroken, notwithstanding 

 the obstacles they had to surmount. At length 

 they approached a nest inhabited by dark ash- 

 coloured ants {Formica ftisca, fig. 10), the dome of 

 which rose above the grass, at a distance of twenty 

 feet from the hedge. Some of its inhabitants were 

 guarding the entrance, but, on the discovery of an 

 approaching army, darted forth upon the advanced 

 guard. The alarm spread at the same moment in 

 the interior, and their companions came forth in 

 numbers from their underground residence. The 

 Amazon Ants, the bulk of whose army lay only at 

 the distance of two paces, quickened their march 

 to arrive at the foot of the ant-hill ; the whole bat- 

 talion, in an instant, fell upon and overthrew the 

 ash-coloured ants, who, after a short but obstinate 

 conflict, retired to the bottom of their nest. The 

 Amazon Ants now ascended the hillock, collected 

 in crowds on the summit, and took possession of 

 the principal avenues, leaving some of their com- 



