186 EDGE OF THE JUNGLE 
branches, and following back along its path, I 
suddenly perceived the rarest of sights—an Atta 
nest entrance boiling with the excitement of a 
flight of winged kings and queens. So engrossed 
were the ants that they paid no attention to me, 
and I was able to creep up close and kneel with- 
in two feet of the hole. The main nest was 
twenty feet away, and this was a special exit 
made for the occasion—a triumphal gateway 
erected far away from the humdrum leaf traffic. 
The two-inch, arched hole Jed obliquely down 
into darkness, while brilliant sunshine illumined 
the earthen take-off and the surrounding mass 
of pink Mazaruni primroses. Up this corridor 
was coming, slowly, with dignity, as befitted the 
occasion, a pageant of royalty. The king males 
were more active, as they were smaller in size 
than the females, but they were veritable giants 
in comparison with the workers. The queens 
seemed like beings of another race, with their 
great bowed thorax supporting the folded wings, 
heads correspondingly large, with less jaw devel- 
opment, but greatly increased keenness of vis- 
ion. In comparison with the Minims, these 
queens were as a human being one hundred feet 
in height. . 
