FORAGING ANTS. 387 



their work, the scene of turmoil gradually ceases, the scattered, 

 parties again form into line, and the procession moves out of the 

 house, carrying its spoils in triumph. The raid is most complete; 

 and when the inhabitants return to the house, they find every in- 

 truder gone, and, to their great comfort, are enabled to move 

 about without treading on some unpleasant creature, and to put 

 on their shoes without previously knocking them against the 

 fk)or for the purpose of shaking out 'the scorpions and similar 

 visitors. 



In the illustration a column of Foraging Ants is seen winding 

 its way through a wood. Every one who is accustomed to the 

 country takes particular care not to cross one of these columns. 

 The Foraging Ants are tetchy creatures, and, not having the least 

 notion of fear, are terrible enemies even to human beings. If a 

 man should happen to cross a column, the ants immediately dash 

 at him, running up his legs, biting fiercely with their powerful 

 jaws, and injecting poison into the wound. The only plan of 

 action in such a case is to run away at top speed until the main 

 body are too far off to renew the attack, and then to destroy the 

 ants that are already in action. This is no easy task, for the 

 fierce little insects drive their hooked mandibles so deeply into 

 the flesh that they are generally removed piecemeal, the head re- 

 taining its hold after the body has been pulled away, and the 

 mandibles clasped so tightly that they must be pinched from the 

 head and detached separately. 



There seems to be scarcely a creature that these insects will 

 not attack, and they will even go out of their way to fall upon 

 the nests of the large and formidable wasps of that country. For 

 the thousand stings the ants care not a jot, but tear away the sub- 

 stance of their nest with their powerful jaws, penetrate into the 

 interior, break down the cells, and drag out the helpless young. 

 Should they meet an adult wasp, they fall upon it, and cut it to 

 pieces in a moment. 



Another species, Eciton prcedator, does not form long and nar- 

 row columns, but marches in a broad and solid phalanx. It is 

 but a little creature, no bigger than the common red ant of En- 

 gland. It is, however, of a brighter red color, and when a phal- 

 anx of these ants ascends a tree, the vast multitudes spread over 

 all the trunk and branches in such numbers that the tree looks 

 as if a blood-red liquid was being poured over it. 



There is another Foraging Ant which forms in broad columns 



