20 SECRETS OF ANIMAL LIFE 
In the summer of 1g11, after scouting had con- 
tinued for some time, Emery noticed one afternoon 
a growing excitement, and the issue of a platoon 
of sixty Amazons. But they only went a couple 
of yards or so, and then returned. About an hour 
afterwards there was another sally which made 
straight for a colony of Brown Ants and came back 
laden with prisoners (babies and children as usual). 
Going and coming several times the Amazons got 
over 450 prisoners that evening. In 1912 and 1913, 
Emery continued working with his artificial nest 
which he shifted hither and thither (a method 
likely to be very useful in tackling myrmeco- 
logical problems), and he confirmed Forel’s descrip- 
tion of the rapidity and precision of some of the 
predatory raids. This probably depends in part 
on the previous reconnoitering, and it seems likely 
enough that a scout who has discovered a suitable 
object of pillage may give the direction to the 
raiders, if it does not actually lead the way. In 
one instance, reported by Forel, the nest to be 
pillaged was at a distance of over 16 feet, but the 
Amazon army went straight for the goal. 
A most extraordinary case was long ago reported 
by Ebrard. One forenoon he took home a nest of 
common ants and their cocoons, inclosed in a 
carefully tied handkerchief, and deposited it in a 
room on the second story, meaning to give the 
warblers in his aviary a treat. In the course of the 
afternoon, on returning from a walk, he found his 
servants in a state of great excitement, for the house 
