makes with them is on encountering
their paths on the outskirts of the forest crowded with the ants; one
lot carrying off the pieces of leaves, each piece about the size of a
sixpence, and held up vertically between the jaws of the ant; another
lot hurrying along in an opposite direction empty handed, but eager to
get loaded with their leafy burdens. If he follows this last division,
it will lead him to some young trees or shrubs, up which the ants
mount; and where each one, stationing itself on the edge of a leaf,
commences to make a circular cut, with its scissor-like jaws, from the
edge, its hinder-feet being the centre on which it turns. When the
piece is nearly cut off, it is still stationed upon it, and it looks
as though it would fall to the ground with it; but, on being finally
detached, the ant is generally found to have hold of the leaf with one
foot, and soon righting itself, and arranging its burden to its
satisfaction, it sets off at once on its return. Following it again,
it is seen to join a throng of others, each laden like itself, and,
without a moment's delay, it hurries along the well-worn path. As it
proceeds, other paths, each thronged with busy workers, come in from
the sides, until the main road often gets to be seven or eight inches
broad, and more thronged than the streets of the city of London.

[Illustration: SETS OFF AT ONCE ON ITS RETURN.]

After travelling for some hundreds of yards, often for more than half
a mile, the formicarium is reached. It consists of low, wide mounds of
brown, clayey-looking earth, above and immediately around which the
bushes have been killed by their buds and leaves having been
persistently bitten off as they attempted to grow after their first
defoliation. Under high trees in the thick forest the ants do not make
their nests, because, I believe, the ventilation of their underground
galleries, about which they are very particular, would be interfered
with, and perhaps to avoid the drip from the trees. It is on the
outskirts of the forest, or around clearings, or near wide roads that
let in the sun, that these formicariums are generally found. Numerous
round tunnels, varying from half an inch to seven or eight inches in
diameter, lead down through the mounds of earth; and many more, from
some distance around, also lead underneath them. At some of the holes
on the mounds ants will be seen busily at work, bringing up little
pellets of earth from below, and casting t