172 ANTS AND ANT LIFE. 



manoeuvre as at first, only stretching its neck further over 

 the edge of the table. He several times reiterated hi& 

 experiment and always with the same result. Later the 

 two colonies were shut up together in a glass case and 

 gradually learned to agree. 



On the 7th of April, 18C9, a battle at first artificially 

 brought about between two colonies of F. pratensis was pre- 

 ceded by a number of skirmishes until towards nine o'clock 

 a regular general battle began, which went on for a whole 

 hour, on the same spot. They fought in large compact 

 masses, which were always freshly directed towards a point 

 midway between the two armies. Side attacks, as with the 

 sanguined, did not take place. Chains of from four to ten 

 ants which had clung together and covered each other with 

 poison were not unusual. Forel often saw, as did Huber, 

 warriors of the same side furiously attacking each other, but 

 they at once recognised and let each other go. Prisoners 

 were dragged into the hostile nest and there killed. Mean- 

 while work within the nest suffered no interruption, and all 

 the labors of peace went quietly on in the midst of war. 

 Towards ten o'clock the van of one army had broken through 

 that of the other, but the vanquished set themselves against 

 a little wall which served as a natural line of defence, and 

 which was made of dry twigs, leaves and plants. At the same 

 time a great movement was perceptible on the dome of the 

 nest of the beaten ants, and some of the ants were working 

 busily away with their antenna?. Immediately afterwards 

 new masses of warriors came out of all the openings of the 

 nest and hurried to the aid of their vanquished comrades. 

 But the enemy, which meanwhile had been carrying off 

 hundreds of prisoners, also made fresh efforts and the battle 

 reached its highest point. The field of battle was covered 

 with warriors thickly pressed together, yet the original lines 

 of battle could still be distinguished. Towards eleven 

 o'clock the original victors were flung back, and pursued 

 first to the original field of battle and then as far as their 

 nest. The conquerors were here obliged to halt, for a new 

 storm had gathered against them in the shape of a third 

 colony of pratensis brought there by Forel. They fought 

 with success also against this new foe, but were finally so tired 

 that towards three o'clock in the afternoon they drew back 

 and rested. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of slain covered 



