Chap. V. 
ORDER. OF MARCH. 
359 
flying about them. In bearing off their spoil in frag- 
ments, the pieces are apportioned to the carriers with 
some degree of regard to fairness of load : the dwarfs 
taking the smallest pieces, and the strongest fellows 
with small heads the heaviest portions. Sometimes two 
ants join together in carrying one piece, but the worker- 
majors with their unwieldy and distorted jaws, are 
incapacitated from taking any part in the labour. The 
armies never march far on a beaten path, but seem to 
prefer the entangled thickets where it is seldom pos- 
sible to follow them. I have traced an army some- 
times for half a mile or more, but was never able to 
find one that had finished its day's course and returned 
to its hive. Indeed, I never met with a hive ; whenever 
the Ecitons were seen, they were always on the march. 
I thought one day, at Villa Nova, that I had come 
upon a migratory horde of this indefatigable ant. The 
place was a tract of open ground near the river side, just 
outside the edge of the forest, and surrounded by rocks 
and shrubbery. A dense column of Ecitons was seen 
extending from the rocks on one side of the little haven, 
traversing the open space, and ascending the opposite 
declivity. The length of the procession was from sixty 
to seventy yards, and yet neither van nor rear was 
visible. All were moving in one and the same direction, 
except a few individuals on the outside of the column, 
which were running rearward, trotting along for a short 
distance, and then turning again to follow the same 
course as the main body. Bu1^ these rearward movements 
were going on continually from one end to the other of 
the line, and there was every appearance of their being a 
