MILITARY ANTS. 
119 
portion, and made short circuits until they hit the scented trail 
again, when all their hesitation vanished, and they ran up and 
down it with the greatest confidence. On gaining the top ol 
the cutting, the ants entered some brushwood suitable for hunt- 
ing. In a very short space of time the information was corn* 
municated to the ants below, and a dense column rushed up to 
search for their prey. The Ecitons are singular amongst the 
ants in this respect, that they have no fixed habitations, but 
move on from one place to another, as they exhaust the hunting 
grounds around them. I think Eciton hamata does not stay 
more than four or five days in one place. I have sometimes 
come across the migratory columns; they may easily be known. 
Here and there one of the light- coloured officers moves back- 
wards and forwards directing the columns. Such a column is 
of enormous length, and contains many thousands if not millions 
of individuals. I have sometimes followed them up for two or 
three hundred yards without getting to the end. 
They make their temporary habitations in hollow trees, and 
sometimes underneath large fallen trucks that offer suitable 
hollows. A nest that I came across in the latter situation was 
open at one side. The ants were clustered together in a dense 
mass, like a great swarm of bees, hanging from the roof but 
reaching to the ground below. Their innumerable long legs 
looked like brown threads binding together the mass, wdiich 
must have been at least a cubic yard in bulk, and contained 
hundreds of thousands of individuals, although many columns 
were outside, some bringing in the pupse of ants, others the legs 
and dissected bodies of various insects. I was surprised to see 
in this living nest tubular passages leading down to the centre 
of the mass, kept open just as if it had been formed of inorganic 
materials. Down these holes the ants who were bringing in 
booty passed with their prey. I thrust a long stick down to 
the centre of the cluster, and brought out clinging to it many 
ants holding larvae and pupae, which probably were kept warm 
by the crowding together of the ants. Besides the common 
dark-coloured workers and light-coloured officers, I saw here 
many still larger individuals with enormous jaws. These 
they go about holding wide open in a threatening manner. 
It was this ant which, as previously stated, showed 
sympathy and fellow-feeling with companions in diffi- 
culties. 
The habits of E. drepanophora are closely similar 
to those of the species already described ; and, indeed, 
