llows such abominable individuality, they must often wish themselves
back at the nest, for every mile of a Medium is three miles to them.

Here is where our mechanical formula breaks down; for, often, as many
as one in every five leaves that pass bears aloft a Minim or two,
clinging desperately to the waving leaf and getting a free ride at the
expense of the already overburdened Medium. Ten is the extreme number
seen, but six to eight Minims collected on a single leaf is not
uncommon. Several times I have seen one of these little banner-riders
shift deftly from leaf to leaf, when a swifter carrier passed by, as
a circus bareback rider changes steeds at full gallop.

Once I saw enacted above ground, and in the light of day, something
which may have had its roots in an _anlage_ of divine discontent. If I
were describing the episode half a century ago, I should entitle it,
"The Battle of the Giants, or Emotion Enthroned." A quadruple line of
leaf-carriers was disappearing down a hole in front of the laboratory,
bumped and pushed by an out-pouring, empty-jawed mass of workers. As I
watched them, I became aware of an area of great excitement beyond the
hole. Getting down as nearly as possible to ant height, I witnessed a
terrible struggle. Two giants--of the largest soldier Maxim
caste--were locked in each other's jaws, and to my horror, I saw that
each had lost his abdomen. The antennae and the abdomen petiole are the
only vulnerable portions of an Atta, and long after he has lost these
apparently dispensable portions of his anatomy, he is able to walk,
fight, and continue an active but erratic life. These mighty-jawed
fellows seem never to come to the surface unless danger threatens; and
my mind went down into the black, musty depths, where it is the duty
of these soldiers to walk about and wait for trouble. What could have
raised the ire of such stolid neuters against one another? Was it
sheer lack of something to do? or was there a cell or two of the
winged caste lying fallow within their bodies, which, stirring at
last, inspired a will to battle, a passing echo of romance, of the
activities of the male Atta?

Their unnatural combat had stirred scores of smaller workers to the
highest pitch of excitement. Now and then, out of the melee, a Medium
would emerge, with a tiny Minim in his jaws. One of these carried his
still living burden many feet away, along an unused trail, and dropped
it. I examined the small ant, and f