354 
ANIMALS OF EGA. 
Chap. Y. 
booty : this was a low thicket ; the Ecitons were moving 
rapidly about a heap of dead leaves ; but as the short 
tropical twilight was deepening rapidly, and I had no 
wish to be benighted on the lonely campos, I deferred 
further examination until the next day. 
On the following morning, no trace of ants could be 
found near the place where I had seen them the pre- 
ceding day, nor were there signs of insects of any 
description in the thicket ; but at the distance of eighty 
or one hundred yards, I came upon the same army, 
engaged, evidently, on a razzia of a similar kind to that 
of the previous evening ; but requiring other resources 
of their instinct, owing to the nature of the ground. 
They were eagerly occupied, on the face of an inclined 
bank of light earth, in excavating mines, whence, from 
a depth of eight or ten inches, they were extracting the 
bodies of a bulky species of ant, of the genus Formica. 
It was curious to see them crowding round the orifices 
of the mines, some assisting their comrades to lift out 
the bodies of the Formicse, and others tearing them in 
pieces, on account of their weight being too great for a 
single Eciton ; a number of carriers seizing each a frag- 
ment, and carrying it off down the slope. On digging 
into the earth with a small trowel near the entrances of 
the mines, I found the nests of the Formicso, with grubs 
and cocoons, which the Ecitons were thus invading, at 
a depth of about eight inches from the surface. The 
eager freebooters rushed in as fast as I excavated, and 
seized the ants in my 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 
