COMBATS BETWEEN ANTS. 213 
for the passage ensued. After a time the combat ceased, 
and all animosity subsided, each party retiring to its 
nest, carrying with it its dead and maimed companions. 
This encounter seemed quite accidental, and the dispo- 
sition to move in a uniform line, which their meeting 
prevented, the sole cause of their hostility, combat, and 
mutual injury. The strength of some creatures, espe- 
cially insects, considering the smallness of their size, 
is in several instances prodigious. Man, by his reason 
and power, calls to his aid mechanical means, and 
other agents, to effect his objects ; but unreasoning be- 
ings accomplish their purposes by contrivance and bodily 
powers. The strength of these black ants is manifested 
by the quantity and magnitude of the materials which 
they collect for their heaps ; but the common little red 
ant (formica rubea), a much smaller creature, gives 
daily proofs of its abilities to remove heavy substances, 
equal to any that we meet with. One of these little 
creatures, thirty-six of which only weigh a single grain, 
I have seen bear away the great black fly as its prize, 
equal to a grain in weight, with considerable ease ; and 
even the wasp, which exceeds forty times its own weight, 
will be dragged away by the labor and perseverance 
of an individual emmet. These little ants are occasion- 
ally and profusely deprived of their lives by some 
unknown visitation. In the year 1826, in particular, 
and again in the following year, I observed, in the month 
of August, a lane strewed with their bodies. They had 
bred during the summer in an adjoining bank ; but some 
fatality had overwhelmed them when absent from their 
nests, and nearly annihilated the fraternity, as only a 
few scattered survivors were to be seen feebly inspect- 
ing the bodies of their associates. The task of removal, 
however, with all their industry, appeared beyond their 
powers to accomplish, as on the ensuing day few had 
been taken away. Had these creatures been destroyed 
in combat by rival contention, the animosity must have 
been excessive; but it is more probable that they met 
their death by some other infliction. 
One year, on the 3d of March, my laborer being em- 
ployed in cutting up ant-hills, or tumps, as we call 
