LIFE IN A PINE WOOD 9 
the way of the others, and setting a foot on it, go 
to work to tear it to pieces. But he sometimes 
mismanaged the business, and when transferring 
the bird from his beak to his claws he would drop 
it over the edge and lose it. The dropped bird 
would be quickly found and attacked by the ants, 
and before many hours it would be a well-cleaned 
skeleton. 
But the ants never ascended this tree. It 
then occurred to me that ants are always seen 
swarming up certain trees—always the same trees; 
and that a vast majority of the trees were never 
invaded by them at all. I now began going round 
and visiting all the trees where I distinctly remem- 
bered having seen ants ascending, and on all 
those trees I found them still swarming up in 
immense numbers as if to some place containing 
an inexhaustible supply of food. It was now, 
however, too late in the season to make sure that 
they do not from time to time invade fresh trees. 
That they should go on from day to day for weeks, 
and perhaps for the whole season, ascending the 
same trees strikes one as very strange; yet such 
a fact would accord with what we know of these 
puzzling insects — their almost incredible wisdom 
in their complex actions and system of life, coupled 
with an almost incredible stupidity. Or do the 
ants know just why they go up this particular tree 
and not any of the surrounding trees? Can it be 
that on this particular tree they have their care- 
fully tended flocks and herds to supply them with 
