WHITE ANTS 
427 
CH. XIV] 
plunge into the water, but it failed to catch anything. 
Another time, suddenly, and seemingly in mere mischief, 
one attacked a purple heron which was standing on a 
mud bank. The eagle swooped down from a tree and 
knocked over the heron ; and when the astonished heron 
struggled to its feet and attempted to fly off, the eagle 
made another swoop and this time knocked it into the 
water. The heron then edged into the papyrus, and the 
eagle paid it no further attention. 
In this camp we had to watch the white ants, which 
strove to devour everything. They are nocturnal, and 
work in the daytime only under the tunnels of earth 
which they build over the surface of the box, or what¬ 
ever else it is, that they are devouring ; they eat out 
everything, leaving this outside shell of earth. We also 
saw a long column of the dreaded driver ants. These 
are carnivorous. I have seen both red and black species ; 
they kill every living thing in their path, and I have 
known them at night drive all the men in a camp out 
into the jungle to fight the mosquitoes unprotected 
until daylight. On another occasion, where a steam¬ 
boat was moored close to a bank, an ant column 
entered the boat after nightfall, and kept complete 
possession of it for forty-eight hours. Fires and 
boiling water offer the only effectual means of re¬ 
sistance. The bees are at times as formidable; when 
their nests are disturbed they will attack everyone in 
sight, driving all the crew of a boat overboard or 
scattering a safari, and not infrequently killing men and 
beasts of burden that are unable to reach some place of 
safety. 
The last afternoon, when the flotilla had called to 
take us farther on our journey, we shot about a dozen 
buck to give the porters and sailors a feast, which they 
