368 HOMES WITHOUT HANDS. 



phalanx of these ants ascends a tree, the vast multitudes spread 

 over all the trunk and branches in such numbers, that the tree 

 looks as if a blood-red liquid was being poured over it. 



There is another Foraging Ant which forms in broad columns 

 when on the march. This is Eciton legionis, a species which is 

 not so common as either of the preceding, and appears only to 

 be seen on the wide sand plains of Santarem. 



These insects sometimes attack the nest of one of the large bur- 

 rowing ants. Mr. Bates mentions that on one occasion, he watched 

 a large army of Foragers begin their attack upon the nest of an 

 ant, some specimens of which he desired to procure. The 

 Foragers set to work with wonderful skill, arranging themselves 

 into two distinct sets of labourers, one set digging into the 

 ground and taking out large pellets of earth, and the other set 

 receiving them from their comrades and carrying them away. 



While watching the proceedings of the soldiers when repair- 

 ing the Thames river-wall after the terrible explosion near 

 Belvedere, I was strongly reminded of the Foraging Ants and 

 their method of working. The parallel was exact in every 

 respect. The officers stood here and there and directed the 

 efforts of their men, while the workers were arranged in regular 

 lines, one set of men digging out the clods of earth, and a second 

 set receiving them and handing them to the spot where they 

 were wanted. I could but fancy that if an observer had been 

 poised at some height above the beach in a balloon, watching 

 the soldiers at work, and had previously seen an army of Ecitons 

 engaged in sinking a shaft, he wovild have seen the insects and 

 their labours precisely reproduced in the human beings, art 

 having at last discovered a process which was in fuU operation 

 before man knew how to handle a weapon or a tool. 



After Mr. Bates had watched the proceedings of the ants for 

 some time, he took a trowel, and opened the ground with it. The 

 clever insects at once took advantage of this aid, and dashed 

 into the breach by thousands, pouncing on the luckless inhabit- 

 ants and carrying them off in their jaws. So bold and so quick 

 were they, that Mr. Bates could scarcely manage to secure a 

 single specimen, and even when he had caught an ant, the 

 Foragers would pull it out of his fingers. 



The same observer has known them to sink their shafts to a 

 depth of ten inches, invariably succeeding in their raid upon the 



