HARVESTING- ANTS. 
109 
through the crowd that vainly but persistently endeavoured to 
get in with their burdens. The outcoming ants had the ad- 
vantage, and succeeded in jostling through the quivering rosette 
of antennae, legs, heads, and abdomens. Occasionally a worker 
gained an entrance by dint of sheer physical , force and perse- 
verance. Again and again would the crowd rush from all 
sides upon the gate, only to be pushed back by the issuing 
throng. In the meanwhile quite a heap of termites, a good 
handful at least, had been accumulated at one side of the gate, 
the ants having evidently dropped them, in despair of entrance, 
and hurried off to garner more. 
In due time the pressure upon the vestibule diminished, 
the laden workers entered more freely, and in the end this heap 
was transferred to the interior. The rapidity with which the 
ants were distributed to all parts of their roads, after the first 
opening of the gates, was truly surprising. I was greatly 
puzzled, at the first, to know what the cause of such a rush 
might be. The whole behaviour was such as to carry the con- 
viction that they knew accurately what effect the rain would 
have, had calculated upon it, and were acting in accordance 
with previous experience. I had no doubt at the time, and 
have none now, that the capturing of insects beaten down by 
the rain is one of the well-established customs of these ants. I 
saw a few other insects taken in, and one milliped, but chiefly 
the white ants. 
That very afternoon I found in a formicary which I then 
opened several large colonies, or parts of one colony of ter- 
mites, nested within the limits of the disk and quite at home. 
The next day numbers of the winged white ants were found 
stored within the granaries of a large formicary. There is no 
reason to doubt that these insects were intended for food, in 
accordance with the quite universal habit of the Formicaries. 
A curious habit has been noticed by most observers to 
occur in many species of ant, and it is one on which Mr. 
MacCook has a good deal to say. The habit in question 
consists in the ants transporting one another from place to 
place. The carrying ant seizes her comrade by the middle., 
and hurries along with it held aloft — the ant which is 
carried remaining quite motionless with all her legs drawn 
together. Huber supposed the process to be one enjoy- 
able to both the insects concerned, and to be performed by 
mutual understanding and consent; but MacCook, in 
common with most other observers, supposes that it is 
