ANTS — WARS. 
81 
abandoned, and on opening it I found all the granaries empty 
with one single exception, and this one was pierced by the 
matted roots of grasses and other plants, and must therefore 
have been long neglected by the ants. Strangely enough, not 
one of the seeds in this deserted granary showed traces of 
germination. 
No doubt some very pressing need is the cause of these 
systematic raids in search of accumulations of seeds, and there 
can be little doubt that the requirements of distinct colonies of 
ants of the same species are often different even at the same 
season and date. Thus these warring colonies of ants were 
active on many days when the majority of the nests were com- 
pletely closed ; and I have even seen these robbers staggering 
along, enfeebled by the cold, and in wind and rain, when all 
other ants were safe below ground. 
The agricultural ants of Texas do not appear to be 
less pugnacious than their European congeners. Thus 
MaeCook says : — 
A young community has sometimes to struggle into perma- 
nent prosperity through many perils. The following example 
is found in the unpublished Lineecum manuscripts. One day a 
new ant-city was observed to be located within ten or twelve 
yards of a long-established nest, a distance that the doctor 
thought would prove too near for peaceable possession — for the 
agricultural seem to pre-empt a certain range of territory 
around their formicary as their own, within which no intrusion 
is allowed. He therefore concluded to keep these nests under- 
dose observation, and visited them frequently. Only a day or 
two had elapsed before he found that the inhabitants of the old 
city had made war upon the new. They had surrounded it in 
great numbers, and were entering, dragging out and killing the 
citizens. The young colonists, who seemed to be of less size 
than their adversaries, fought bravely, and, notwithstanding 
they were overwhelmed by superior numbers, killed and maimed 
many of their assailants. The parties were scattered in strug- 
gling pairs over a space ten or fifteen feet around the city gate, 
and w he ground was strewed with many dead bodies. The new 
colonists aimed altogether at cutting off the legs of their larger 
foes, which they accomplished with much success. The old-city 
warriors, on the contrary, gnawed and clipped off the heads and 
abdomens of their enemies. Two days afterward the battle- 
field was revisited, and many ants were found lying dead 
tightly locked together by legs and mandibles, while hundreds 
