BATTLE OF THE ANTS.

Colonist, Volume III, Issue 225, 16 December 1859, Page 3

BATTLE OF THE ANTS.

One day, says a Backwoodsman, I witnessed a singular scene when I went out to my wood-pile, or rather my pile of stumps. I observed two large ants, the one red, the other much larger, nearly half an inch long, and black, fiercely contending with one another. Having once got hold they never let go, but struggled, and wrestled, and rolled on the chips incessantly. Looking farther, I was surprised to find that the chips were covered with such combatants, — that it was not a duel, but a battle,—a war between two races of ants, the red always pitted against the black, and frequently two red ones to one black. The legions of these myrmidons covered all the hills and vales of my wood-yard, and the ground was already strewn with the dead and dying, both red and black. It was the only battle which I have ever witnessed, the only battle field I ever trod while the battle was raging; internecine war; the red republicans on the one hand, and ths black imperialists on the other. On every side they were engaged in deadly combat, yet without any noise that I could hear, and human soldiers never fought so resolutely. I watched a couple that were fast locked in each other's embraces, in a little sunny valley amid the chips, now at noonday prepared to fight till the sun went down, or life went out. The smaller red champion had fastened himself like a vice to his adversary's front, and through all the tumblings on that field never for an instant ceased to gnaw at one of his feelers near the root, having already caused the other to go by the board; while the stronger black one dashed him from side to side, and, as I saw, on looking nearer, had already divested him of several of his members. They fought with more pertinacity than bull-dogs. Neither manifested I the least disposition to retreat. It was evident that their war-cry was conquer or die. In the meanwhile there came along a single red ant on this hill 7 side of the valley, evidently full of excitement, who either had despatched his foe or had not yet taken part in,the battle—probably the latter, for he had lost none of his limbs—whose mother had charged him to return with his shield or upon it. Or perchance he was some Achilles, who had nourished his wrath apart, and who had now come to avenge or rescue his Patroclus. He saw this unequal combat from afar—for the blacks were nearly twice the size of the red—he drew near with rapid pace, till he stood on his guard within half an inch of the combatants; then watching his opportunity, he sprang upon the black warrior, and commenced his operations near the root of his right foreleg, leaving the foe to select among his own members; and so there were three united for life, as if a new kind of attraction had been invented which put all other locks and cements to shame. I should not have wondered by this to find that they had their respective musical bands stationed on some eminent chip, and playing their national airs the while, to excite the slow and cheer the dying combatants. I was myself excited somewhat even, as if they had been men. I took up the chip on which the three I have particularly described were struggling, carried it into my house., and placed it under a tumbler on my window-sill, in order to see the issue. Holding a microscope to the first-mentioned red ant, I saw that, though he was assiduously gnawing at the near fore-leg of his enemy, having severed his remaining feeler, his own breast was all torn away, exposing what vitals he had there to the jaws of the black warrior, whose breastplate was apparently too thick for him to pierce; and thedark carbuncles of the sufferer's eyes shonewith a ferocity such as war only could excite. They struggled half an hour longer under the tumbler; and when I looked again the black soldier had severed the heads of his foes from their bodies, and the still livingheads were hanging on either side of him, like ghastly trophies at his saddle-bow still apparently as firmly fastened as ever, and he was endeavouring with feeble struggles* being without feelers and with only theremnant of a leg, and I know not how many other wounds, to divest himself of them ; which at length, after half an hour more, he accomplished. I raised the glass, and he went off over the window-sill in that crippled Btate. Whether he finally survived that combat, and spent the remainder of his days s insome Hotel dcs Invalides, I do not know ; but I thought that his industry would not be worth much thereafter. I never learned which party was victorious, nor the cause of the war; but I felt for the rest of that day as if I had had my feelings excited and harrowed by witnessing the struggle, the : ferocity, and carnage of a human . battle, before my door.

' A tailor^ who in skating fell; through^ the, ice,, declared he would never leave hot goose for a cold, duck. . Crinoline, like an obatiQ^ woman, often stands,. W\ a,l»qut tw^