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pursue exactly the route by which they went to the attack. Their success on these ex- 

 peditions is rather the result of their impetuosity, by which they damp the courage of 

 the negroes, than of their superior strength, though they are a larger animal ; for some- 

 times a very small body of them, not more than 150, has been known to succeed in their 

 attack and carry off their booty." 



Mr. Kirby corroborates the foregoing account by the following description of his own 

 observations several years later, when he had an opportunity of visiting Paris, and calling 

 upon the celebrated French entomologist, M. Latreille : " He assured ine," to quote Mr. 

 Kirby's words, " that he had verified all the principal facts advanced by Huber ; at the 

 same time he informed me that there was a nest of the rufescent ants in the Bois de 

 Boulogne, to which place he afterwards was so good as to accompany me. We went on 

 the 25th of June. The day was excessively hot and sultry. A little before five in the 

 afternoon we began our search. At first we could not discern a single ant in motion. 

 In a minute or two, however, my friend directed my attention to one individual — two 

 or three more next appeared — and soon a numerous army was to be seen winding through 

 the long grass of a low ridge in which was their formicary. Just at the entrance of the 

 wood from Paris, on the right hand and near the road, is a bare place, paled in for the 

 Sunday amusement of the lower orders — to this the ants directed their march, and upon 

 entering it divided into two columns, which traversed it rapidly and with great apparent 

 eagerness ; all the while exploring the ground with their antennae, as beagles with their 

 noses, evidently as if in pursuit of game. Those in the van, as Huber also observed, kept 

 perpetually falling back into the main body. When they had passed this inclosure, they 

 appeared for some time to be at a loss, making no progress, but only coursing about ; but 

 after a few minutes' delay, as if they had received some intelligence, they resumed their 

 march, and soon arrived at a negro nest, which they entered by one or two apertures. 

 We could not observe that any negroes were expecting their attack outside the nest, but 

 in a short time a few came out at another opening, and seemed to be making their escape. 

 Perhaps some conflict might have taken place within the nest in the interval between 

 the appearance of these negroes and the entry of their assailants. However this might 

 be, in a few minutes one of the latter made its appearance with a pupa in its mouth ; it 

 was followed by three or four more ; and soon the whole army began to emerge as fast 

 as it could, almost every individual carrying its burthen. Most that I observed seemed 

 to have pupa?. I then traced the expedition back to the spot from which I first saw 

 them set out, which according to my steps was about 156 feet from the negro formicary. 

 The whole business was transacted in little more than an hour. Though I could trace the 

 ants bar k to a cert ain spot in the ridge before mentioned, where they first appeared in the 

 long grass, I did not succeed in finding the entrance to their nest, so that I was deprived 

 of the pleasure of seeing the mixed society. 



" M. Latreille very justly observes that it is physically impossible for the rufescent 

 ants (F. rufescens), on account of the form of their jaws, and the accessory parts of their 

 mouth, either to prepare habitations for their family, to procure food, or to feed them. 



" Formica sanguined (the red ant mentioned above) is another of the slave-making 

 ants ; and its proceedings merit separate notice, since they differ considerably from those 

 of the ruf escents. They construct their nests under hedges of a southern aspect, and like- 

 wise attack the hills both of the negroes and miners. On the 15th of July, at ten in the 

 morning, Huber observed a small band of these ants sallying forth from their formicary, 

 and marching rapidly to a neighbouring nest of negroes, around which it dispersed. The 

 inhabitants, rushing out in crowds, attacked them and took several prisoners : those that 

 escaped advanced no farther, but appeared to wait for succours ; small brigades kept 

 frequently arriving to reinforce them, which emboldened them to approach nearer to the 

 \ city they had blockaded ; upon this their anxiety to send couriers to their own nest seemed 

 [to increase ; these spreading a general alarm, a large reinforcement immediately set out 

 I to join the besieging army ; yet even then they did not begin the battle. Almost all the 

 (negroes, coming out of their fortress, formed themselves in a body about two feet square 

 in front of it, and there expected the enemy. Frequent skirmishes were the prelude to 

 the main conflict, which was begun by the negroes. Long before success appeared dubious 

 they carried off" their pupae, and heaped them up at the e stance to their nest, on the side 



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