Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 5.djvu/103

Rh was removed as soon as possible, if the old abode was broken up. That the leaves were not eaten was shown by the fact that the refuse in many deserted chambers was composed entirely of their decayed fragments, exhausted as a manure for the fungus, and left as food for larvæ of several species of beetles. Some leaves were evidently unsuited to the purposes of the ants. Grass, if carried in, was directly brought out again, and thrown away. The carriers of this were probably young ants, and may have got a severe ear-wigging for their stupidity. After all, then, do ants, like hosts of other animals, learn by experience, and is instinct, so called, sometimes at fault?

Bates describes the sand-wasps, on the banks of the Amazon, which, on making a hole, carefully examine the locality before leaving it to procure food, and Mr. Belt noticed similar actions in repeated instances. They take the same precautions that a man would do, who wished to return to the same spot. Frequently, after going a few rods, they will return, fly around for an instant, and then dart away. On one occasion, a portion of a green caterpillar was carried away by a wasp, which, on returning for the other portion, missed its mark on alighting, and became quite lost, when it took wing again, made circles around the spot, and again alighted, but in vain. This was repeated half a dozen times, and the insect seemed to get angry, buzzing loudly, when finally it found its prey.

Butterflies of several kinds are described as abundant, but the migration in enormous swarms of one or more species, which occurred every year, is an interesting phenomenon.

Flights of butterflies were thus described by Darwin in 1832: "When off the shores of Northern Patagonia, we were surrounded by vast numbers of butterflies, in bands or flocks of countless myriads, extending as far as the eye could range; even with the aid of a telescope, it was not possible to see a space free from butterflies." Mr. Belt had seen immense migrating flocks in Brazil, journeying southeastward, as were all those seen by him in Nicaragua. These were a brown-tailed species (Timetes chiron), and there were no return-swarms, but a continuous migration in one direction only. The gilded, day-flying moth (Urania leilus), and a few yellow butterflies, were seen with the migrating hosts.

Birds, which are abundant at all seasons in the country, have a habit of associating, possibly for safety, or, as Mr. Belt suggests, to assist each other in hunting for food. Thus, flocks of hundreds, comprising a score of different species, are frequent, and, when present, the trees seem alive with them. He could scarcely go abroad without meeting them; fly-catchers, woodpeckers, tanagers, creepers, trogons of several species, all associating, apparently, on the most friendly terms, for mutual help.

The natives found about the country, as well as in the towns, represent an inferior type of civilization. They are, as a rule, excessively