ANTS AND ANT LIFE. 97 



carrying them are quite hidden. Yet they moved very 

 rapidly, and the whole road or path looked perfectly green. 



Dr. Fr. Ellendorf, of Wiedenbriick, who has lived many 

 years in Central America, writes as follows to the author on 

 this remarkable animal : " The umbrella-ants belong to the 

 most interesting of the ant-species. 1 often met them in 

 Costa Rica at the beginning of the dry season, hurrying in 

 millions towards the coffee plantations, or returning to the 

 domestic hearth, each carrying a little green flag on its 

 head. I often watched their busy, industrious ways, and 

 once let myself be so led away by them that I tied up my 

 mule and walked along the procession to find the nest. But 

 as at the end of half-an-hour I had not succeeded, I turned 

 back for want of time. A few years ago, later, I had more 

 time and opportunity for watching them. Soon after the 

 commencement of the dry season the grass on the hill-sides 

 is dried up by the rays of the tropical sun, and the ants 

 then begin to visit the coffee plantations. What work and 

 patience to provide for their wants ! It would be quite impos- 

 sible for them to creep even through short grass with loads 

 on their heads for miles. They therefore bite off the grass 

 close to the ground for a breadth of about five inches, and 

 throw it on one side. Thus a road is constructed, which is 

 finally made quite smooth and even by the continual passing 

 to and fro of millions upon millions night and day. As 

 soon as they have reached the plantation they climb up the 

 trees, and each ant in about a quarter of an hour has cut 

 out of a leaf by its mandibles a crescent shaped piece, half 

 an inch long ; it holds this firmly over its head and sets off 

 homewards. If the road is looked down upon from a height 

 on the way back, with these millions thickly pressed together 

 and all moving along with these green bannerets on their 

 heads it looks as though a giant green snake were gliding 

 slowly along the ground, and this picture with its greenish- 

 yellow background is so much the more striking that all 

 these bannerets are swaying backwards and forwards. 



" At the end of the war in Nicaragua I lived for a long 

 time in the little town of Xivas. On an excursion after 

 butterflies I one day met a laden train and seized the oppor- 

 tunity of watching the creatures more closely. I first 

 wished to see how they would manage if I put an obstacle 

 in their way. Thick, high grass stood on either side of their 



