nt of the undigested remains of heads
and abdomens. _Bufo marinus_ is the gardener's best friend in this
tropic land, and besides, he is a gentleman and a philosopher, if ever
an amphibian was one.

While the cutting of living foliage is the chief aim in life of these
ants, yet they take advantage of the flotsam and jetsam along the
shore, and each low tide finds a column from some nearby nest
salvaging flowerets, leaves, and even tiny berries. A sudden wash of
tide lifts a hundred ants with their burdens and then sets them down
again, when they start off as if nothing had happened.

The paths or trails of the Attas represent very remarkable feats of
engineering, and wind about through jungle and glade for surprising
distances. I once traced a very old and wide trail for well over two
hundred yards. Taking little Third-of-an-inch for a type (although he
would rank as a rather large Atta), and comparing him with a six-foot
man, we reckon this trail, ant-ratio, as a full twenty-five miles.
Belt records a leaf-cutter's trail half a mile long, which would mean
that every ant that went out, cut his tiny bit of leaf, and returned,
would traverse a distance of a hundred and sixteen miles. This was an
extreme; but our Atta may take it for granted, speaking antly, that
once on the home trail, he has, at the least, four or five miles ahead
of him.

The Atta roads are clean swept, as straight as possible, and very
conspicuous in the jungle. The chief high-roads leading from very
large nests are a good foot across, and the white sand of their beds
is visible a long distance away. I once knew a family of opossums
living in a stump in the center of a dense thicket. When they left at
evening, they always climbed along as far as an Atta trail, dropped
down to it, and followed it for twenty or thirty yards. During the
rains I have occasionally found tracks of agoutis and deer in these
roads. So it would be very possible for the Attas to lay the
foundation for an animal trail, and this, _a la_ calf-path, for the
street of a future city.

The part that scent plays in the trails is evidenced if we scatter an
inch or two of fresh sand across the road. A mass of ants banks
against the strange obstruction on both sides, on the one hand a solid
phalanx of waving green banners, and on the other a mob of empty-jawed
workers with wildly waving antennae. Scouts from both sides slowly
wander forward, and finally reach one another and pass acro