74 EDGE OF THE JUNGLE 
three inches these sides met overhead, forming 
a short tunnel at the end of which the nest began. 
And here I noticed an interesting thing. Into 
this organic moat or tunnel, this living mouth of 
an inferno, passed all’ the booty-laden foragers, 
or those who for some reason had returned 
empty-mouthed. But the outgoing host seeped 
gradually from the outermost nest-layer—a grad- 
ual but fundamental circulation, like that of 
‘ocean currents. Scorpions, eggs, caterpillars, 
glass-like wasp pupz, roaches, spiders, crickets, 
—all were drawn into the nest by a maelstrom 
of hunger, funneling into the narrow tunnel; 
while from over all the surface of the swarm 
there crept forth layer after layer of invigorated, 
implacable seekers after food. 
The mass of ants composing the nest appeared 
so loosely connected that it seemed as if a touch 
would tear a hole, a light wind rend the sup- 
ports. It was suspended in the upper corner 
of the doorway, rounded on the free sides, and 
measured roughly two feet in diameter—an un- 
numbered host of ants. Those on the surface 
were in very slow but constant motion, with legs 
shifting and antenne waving continually. This 
quivering on the surface of the swarm gave it 
