AMAZON ANT. 



'203 



Two or three young gannets (Sulci alba) should be got in different 

 stages of perfection. They are first of all covered with white down, 

 but I never saw one in that state; they then become brown all over, in 

 this stage called boobies by the fishermen, and are not perfect till the 

 third or fourth summer. 



I am not much acquainted with the rock birds, therefore will say 

 nothing about them ; and I have already extended this paper to a 

 greater length than I intended. 



Southchurch, March 7, 1834. 



AMAZON ANT (Formica rupescens, Latreille). 



BY THE EDITOR. 



This is a species whose history was first investigated by the younger 

 Huber, and whose economy is so extraordinary as almost to exceed 

 belief. The details, indeed, have hitherto been credited chiefly if not 

 solely on the well known veracity of Huber ; but in the autumn of 

 1832 we had an opportunity of verifying them, both in the Black 

 Forest and in Switzerland, where the species is found chiefly on the 

 borders of the great pine forests. 



The species has not hitherto been found in Britain, and we were 

 unsuccessful in our attempt to bring over from the Black Forest a nest 

 of live ones, which we had placed in a box for the purpose. This ant 

 is of a pale reddish colour all over, the female larger than the worker, 

 and of a clear colour : the male, pale black. We think that it will 

 prove most interesting to the reader to give Huber's narrative in his 

 own words. 



"On the 17th of June, 1804," says he, "whilst walking in the 

 environs of Geneva, between four and five in the evening, I observed 

 close to my feet, traversing the road, a legion of amazon ants. They 

 moved in a body, with considerable rapidity, and occupied a space of 

 from eight to ten inches in length, by three or four inches in breadth. 

 In a few minutes they quitted the road, passed a thick hedge, and 

 entered a pasture ground, where I followed them. They wound along 

 the grass without straggling, and their column remained unbroken 

 notwithstanding the obstacles they had to surmount ; at length they 

 approached a nest inhabited by dark negro ants (F. fusca), the dome 

 of which rose above the grass, at a distance of twenty feet from the 



