ANIMAL AVOCATIONS 
225 
ensues, heads and legs being nipped off by the 
powerful jaws of the combatants. 
In West Africa is found a species of ant 
known as the driving or visiting ant. It 
congregates in vast armies, and when on the 
march attacks every living creature that comes 
across its path. Some idea of the formidable 
nature of these ants may be gained by the 
following story recorded by an eye-witness of 
a struggle between a swarm of driver ants and 
a venomous cerastes or horned-viper. The 
reptile, while in the act of shedding its skin, 
had been set upon by a horde of ants which 
were hanging on with their sharp pincers to 
every part of its body. The snake writhed 
about in a vain endeavour to free itself from 
its enemies, but after about a quarter of an 
hour its strength gave out, and it lay upon the 
ground stretched out at full length. In a few 
minutes, states the writer, “ its body was covered 
two inches deep with ants tearing and cutting 
away its flesh.” 
Should the driver ants happen to pass through 
a native village during their peregrinations, 
the inhabitants are forced to beat a hasty 
retreat and leave their dwellings until the 
horde has passed by. But as the creatures 
also drive away at the same time the swarm of 
rats, mice, beetles, lizards, and other objection- 
p 
