Bibliographical Notices. 395 



matter, dead or alive, throwing off here and there a thinner column 

 to forage for a short time on the flanks of the main body, and re- 

 enter it again after their task is accomplished. On meeting with a 

 place rich in spoil, such as a mass of rotten wood abounding in insect 

 larvae, a delay takes place, and a strong force is concentrated upon 

 it. "The excited creatures search every cranny, and tear in pieces 

 all the large grubs they drag to light." Even wasps' nests are no 

 impregnable fortresses to them : they escalade the low shrubs on 

 which they are built, gnaw away the papery covering to get at the 

 larvae, pupse, and newly -hatched wasps, and, regardless of the infuriated 

 owners, cut everything to tatters. Mr. Bates says, they " never 

 march far on a beaten path, but seem to prefer the entangled thickets, 

 where it is seldom possible to follow them." He was not once able 

 to find an army that had finished its day's course and returned to its 

 hive. Indeed, he never met with a hive at all: "Wherever the 

 Ecitons were seen, they were always on the march." No wonder, 

 then, that " wherever they move, the whole animal world is set in 

 commotion, and every creature tries to get out of their way." How- 

 ever, their life, even on the march, is not always spent in marauding, 

 "fighting still and still destroying." In sunny glades, the hosts would 

 sometimes halt, and while the columns preserved their relative posi- 

 tion, the ranks would be broken, and the plunderers would walk 

 slowly about, or busy themselves by attending to their toilette, brush- 

 ing their own or their neighbours' antennae. Here and there an ant 

 was to be seen stretching forth first one leg and then another to be 

 washed by a comrade, who performed the task by passing the limb 

 between the jaws and the tongue, finishing by giving the antennae a 

 friendly wipe. " It is probable," says our author, " that these hours 

 of relaxation and cleaning may be indispensable to the effective per- 

 formance of their harder labours ; but whilst looking at them, the 

 conclusion that the ants were engaged merely in play was irresist- 

 ible." Two species at least of ^aYo?i are blind. These fellows are 

 great engineers, moving wholly under covered roads, which they 

 construct rapidly as they advance, and, protected by them, push on 

 till they reach some happy hunting-ground in the shape of a rotting 

 log, into the crevices of which they pour in search of booty. Their 

 arcades extend occasionally for a distance of one or two hundred 

 yards ; but Mr. Bates does not give us as full an account of these 

 extraordinary creatures as of their congeners who are blessed with 

 organs of vision. 



However, we have passed enough time with the ants, and must 

 press onwards. Nearly every class of animal and vegetable life ob- 

 tains a notice in Mr. Bates's book, whose pages absolutely teem with 

 valuable information respecting beasts, birds, reptiles, and fishes, 

 insects of all orders, and curious plants. We must not omit to draw 

 the reader's attention to his observations on the origin and variation 

 of species (vol. i. pp. 255-265) ; but, for the reason we have before 

 given, we content ourselves here with only mentioning these much- 

 vexed questions. In like manner, without going into the subject, we 

 can but refer to our author's pertinent remarks on animal distribu- 



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