ANTS AND ANT LIFE. 105 



length they snap. It then descends the stem, patiently- 

 backing and turning upward again as often as the clumsy 

 and disproportionate burden becomes wedged between the 

 thickly-set stalks, and joins the line of its companions on 



their way to the nest Two ants also sometimes 



combine their efforts, when one stations itself near the base 

 of the peduncle and gnaws it at the point of greatest 



tension, while the other 'hauls upon and twists it I 



have occasionally seen ants engaged in cutting the capsules 

 of certain plants drop them and allow their companions 

 below to carry them away ; and this corresponds with the 

 curious account given by JElian [see pp. 55, 56]. . . . Occa- 

 sionally [in addition to seeds] one or two may be detected 

 carrying a dead insect, or crushed landshell, the corolla of 

 a flower, a fragment of stick, or leaf, but I have never seen 

 Aphides brought into the nest or visited by this ant or by 

 Atta strnctor. It sometimes happens that an ant has mani- 

 festly made a bad selection, and is told on its return that 

 what it has brought home with so much pains is no better 

 than rubbish, and is hustled out of the nest and forced to 



throw its burden away I have often amused myself 



by strewing hemp and canary seed or oats, all of which form 

 heavy burdens for the ants, near their nests; and it is a 

 curious sight to see the eagerne.s and determination with 

 which they will drag them away. It is interesting also to 

 note how on the following day the husks of these seeds will 

 appear on the rubbish heap, or sometimes, after a shower of 

 rain, they will be brought out by the ants with the point of 

 the little root (the radicle or fibril as the case may be) 

 gnawed off. It frequently happens that on the wild hillside 

 the position of a nest of Atta barbara is indicated by the 

 presence of a number of plants growing on or round the 

 kitchen midden, which are properly weeds of cultivation, 

 and strangers to the cistus and lavender-covered banks of 

 the garrigue. These have sprung from seeds accidentally 

 dropped by the ants, and which they had obtained from the 

 lemon terraces The large mounds which may fre- 

 quently be found at the entrances of their nests, are nothing 

 more than the rubbish heaps and kitchen middens of each 

 establishment. These consist in part of the earth pellets 

 and grains of gravel which the ants bring out from their 

 nests when forming the subterranean galleries, but princi- 



