82 EDGE OF THE JUNGLE 
one or two legs gone, others had lost an antenna 
or had an injured body. ‘They seemed not to 
know what to do—wandering around, now and 
then giving one another a half-hearted lick. In 
the midst was one which had died, and two others, 
each badly injured, were trying to tug the body 
along to the edge of the board. This they suc- 
ceeded in doing after a long series of efforts, 
and down and down fell the dead ant. It was 
promptly picked up by several kitchen-midden- 
ites and unceremoniously thrown on the pile of 
nest-débris. A load of booty had been dumped 
among the cripples, and as each wandered close 
to it, he seemed to regain strength for a moment, 
picked up the load, and then dropped it. The 
sight of that which symbolized almost all their 
life-activity aroused them to a momentary for- 
getfulness of their disabilities. There was no 
longer any place for them in the home or in the 
columns of the legionaries. They had been court- 
martialed under the most implacable, the most 
impartial law in the world—the survival of the 
fit, the elimination of the unfit. 
The time came when we had to get at our 
stored supplies, over which the army ants were 
such an effective guard. I experimented on a 
