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 surroimding trees ? Can it be 

 that on this particular tree they have their care- 

 fully tended flocks and herds to supply them with 



