er themselves to the
assailing party, and carry their own honey to the house of the
bandits. Henceforth they unite their fortune to that of the others,
and share in their easy and adventurous life.[32]

[32] P. Huber, _Recherches sur les Moeurs des Fourmis
indigenes_, Paris and Geneve, 1810, chap. ix.

Bates has given a vivid description of the armies of the South
American Foraging Ants (_Eciton_). They are carnivorous hunters who
march in large armies, and are found on the banks of the Amazon,
especially in the open campos of Santarem. The _Eciton legionis_
chiefly carry off the mangled larvae and pupae of other ants. They will
attack the nests of a bulky species of the genus _Formica_; they lift
out the bodies of these ants and tear them in pieces, as they are too
large for a single _Eciton_ to carry off, a number of carriers seizing
each fragment. They seem to divide into parties, one party excavating
and the other carrying away the grains of earth to a distance from the
hole just sufficient to prevent them rolling back into it. There is,
however, no rigid distribution of labour, the miners sometimes
becoming carriers, and then again assuming the office of carrying off
the prey. In marching off they form a broad and compact column, sixty
or seventy yards in length, those who may be empty-handed assisting
heavily-laden comrades. The _Eciton drepanophora_ attacks and carries
off all kinds of insects, especially wingless species, such as
maggots, caterpillars, larvae of cockroaches, etc. An eyeless
species,[33] the _Eciton erratica_, rapidly forms covered passages
under which to advance, and shows great skill in fitting the keystone
to these convex arcades.[34]

[33] Belt points out that blindness is an advantage in the
particular mode of hunting adopted by these ants, enabling
them to keep together. Those species of _Eciton_ which hunt
singly have very well developed eyes.

[34] Bates, _Naturalist on the Amazons_ (edition of 1892),
pp. 355-363.

Belt has also made some extremely interesting observations on the
_Ecitons_, whom for intelligence he places first among the ants of
Central America, and as such at the head of the Articulata.[35]

[35] See _Naturalist in Nicaragua_, 1888, pp. 17-29.

_Expeditions to acquire slaves._--In order to reduce one's own species
to slavery, it seems at first that an intelligence is required as
developed as that of Man. It is