1879.) _ - Loblogy. 707 
pursue the subject further but was obliged to leave next morning. 
Some of my friends, however, endeavored to procure me speci- 
mens for identification, but faiied to find them. The birds were 
probably on the eve of migration, and arranging therefor. Per- 
haps their ordinary pabulum is too quickly digested to support 
them on their flight, and they therefore instinctively lay up a 
store of more durable food.— Fames Allinson. 
NOTES on THE SLAVE-MAKING Ant.—For the past three years 
I have been observing a large colony of slave-making ants (For- 
mica sanguinea). The formicary is in the grove which surrounds 
the house, thus affording me an excellent opportunity to see the 
battles and raids upon other species, and to note their curious 
proceedings in many other respects. 
On August 1st and 2d I witnessed the greatest battle I ever 
Saw between the slave-makers (/’. sanguinea) and the black ants 
(F. fusca). The distance between the two colonies was one 
hundred and twenty feet. The immense number of individuals 
composing the colony of slave-makers may be partly estimated 
by seeing them on the war path, which was about one foot in 
width and one hundred and twenty feet in length—not thinly 
scattered but a vast moving phalanx. 
The battle-field was about twenty-five or thirty feet in circum- 
ference. The blacks were a grand army that would not flee, and 
the ground was soon literally covered with the combatants. 
It is stated in the August number of the AMERICAN NATURAL- 
` IST, page 526, that by means of the microphone Mr. T. S. Tait 
has been able to hear the roar of a black ant when attacked by 
its companion. When the ants were first attacked in this great 
battle, I certainly heard a roar without the aid of a microphone! 
Was it the busy tramping feet that I heard? The roar—I do not 
know what else to call it—lasted only a few moments, whereas 
the battle lasted four or five hours before the reds gained posses- 
sion of the vast nurseries of the blacks. It took them nearly two 
days (they cease work at night) to transport the pupz and the 
mature prisoners to their own dominions, 
It is a singular fact, that in all the battles which I have wit- 
nessed during the past three years the reds have never been 
See as many as three black heads hanging to the legs of one of 
the reds, while the headless trunks of the blacks are strewn 
thickly over the ground. Very few reds are killed compared — 
with the blacks. | He n 
=~ The blacks are not the only species which the slave-makers 
_ attack. The brown ant (F. schaufussit), and the yellow variety — 
