ANTS — WAKS. 
71 
follow it by smell. On the other hand, such mistakes scarcely 
ever happen to individuals in an unladen train, kept in good 
array. Other species of ants (F. fusca , rufa, sanguinea) know 
better how to manage under such circumstances than do the 
Amazons. The laden ones lay down their loads, first find where 
they are, and only take them up again after they have found 
their way. If the booty seized in the nest first attacked is too 
large to be all taken at once, the robbers return once, or oftener, 
so as to complete their work. .... The ants, as already said, 
have no regular leaders nor chiefs, yet it is certain that in each 
expedition, alteration of road, or other change, the decision 
during that event comes from a small knot of individuals, which 
have previously come to an understanding, and carry the rest 
and the undecided along with them. These do not always 
follow immediately, but only after they have received several 
taps on the head from the members of the s ring/ The pro- 
cession does not advance until the leaders have convinced them- 
selves by their own eyesight that the main part of the army is 
following. 
One day Forel saw some Amazons on the surface of a nest 
of the F. fusca seeking and sounding in all directions, without 
being able to find the entrance. At last one of them found a 
very little hole, hardly as large as a pin’s head, through which 
the robbers penetrated. But since, owing to the smallness of 
the hole, the invasion went on slowly, the search was continued, 
and an entrance was found further off, through which the 
Amazon army gradually disappeared. All was quiet. About 
five minutes later Forel saw a booty-laden column emerge from 
each hole. Not a single ant was without a luad. The two 
columns united outside and retreated together. 
A marauding excursion of the Amazons against the F. 
rufibarbis , a sub-species of the F. fusca , or small black ants, 
took place as follows : — The vanguard of the robber army found 
that it had reached the neighbourhood of the hostile nest more 
quickly than it had expected ; for it halted suddenly and de- 
cidedly, and sent a number of messengers which brought up the 
main body and the rearguard with incredible speed. In less 
than thirty seconds the whole army had closed up, and hurled 
itself in a mass on the dome of the hostile nest. This was the 
more necessary as the rufibarbes during the short halt had dis- 
covered the approach of the enemy, and had utilised the time to 
cover the dome with defenders. An indescribable struggle 
followed, but the superior numbers of the Amazons overcame, 
and they penetrated into the nest, while the defenders poured 
