472 



ANIMALS OF EGA 



a depth of about eight inches from the surface. The 

 eager freebooters rushed in as fast as I excavated, and 

 seized the ants in m^^ fingers as I picked them out, so 

 that I had some difficulty in rescuing a few entire for 

 specimens. In digging the numerous mines to get at 

 their prey, the httle Ecitons seemed to be divided into 

 parties, one set excavating, and another set carrying 

 away the grains of earth. When the shafts became 

 rather deep, the mining parties had to cHmb up the 

 sides each time they wished to cast out a pellet of earth ; 

 but their work was lightened for them by comrades, who 

 stationed themselves at the mouth of the shaft, and re- 

 lieved them of their burthens, carrying the particles, with 

 an appearance of foresight which quite staggered me, a 

 sufficient distance from the edge of the hole to prevent 

 them from rolling in again. All the work seemed thus 

 to be performed by intelligent co-operation amongst the 

 host of eager little creatures ; but still there was not a 

 rigid division of labour, for some of them, whose pro- 

 ceedings I watched, acted at one time as carriers of pellets, 

 and at another as miners, and all shortly afterwards as- 

 sumed the office of conveyers of the spoil. 



In about two hours, all the nests of Formicae were 

 rifled, though not completely, of their contents, and I 

 turned towards the army of Ecitons, which were carrying 

 away the mutilated remains. For some distance there 

 were many separate lines of them moving along the 

 slope of the bank ; but a short distance off, these all 

 converged, and then formed one close and broad column, 

 which continued for some sixty or seventy yards, and 

 terminated at one of those large termitariums already 

 described in a former chapter as being constructed of a 

 material as hard as stone. The broad and compact 

 column of ants moved up the steep sides of the hillock 

 in a continued stream ; many, which had hitherto trotted 

 along empty-handed, now turned to assist their comrades 

 with their heavy loads, and the whole descended into a 

 spacious gallery or mine, opening on the top of the ter- 

 mitarium. I did not try to reach the nest, which I 

 supposed to lie at the bottom of the broad mine, and 

 therefore in the middle of the base of the stony hillock. 



Ectton drep anaphora. — The commonest species of forag- 

 ing ants are the Eciton hamata and E. drepanophora, 

 two kinds which resemble each other so closely that it 



