ng. Into this organic moat or
tunnel, this living mouth of an inferno, passed all the booty-laden
foragers, or those who for some reason had returned empty-mouthed. But
the outgoing host seeped gradually from the outermost nest-layer--a
gradual but fundamental circulation, like that of ocean currents.
Scorpions, eggs, caterpillars, glass-like wasp pupae, roaches, spiders,
crickets,--all were drawn into the nest by a maelstrom of hunger,
funneling into the narrow tunnel; while from over all the surface of
the swarm there crept forth layer after layer of invigorated,
implacable seekers after food.

The mass of ants composing the nest appeared so loosely connected that
it seemed as if a touch would tear a hole, a light wind rend the
supports. It was suspended in the upper corner of the doorway, rounded
on the free sides, and measured roughly two feet in diameter--an
unnumbered host of ants. Those on the surface were in very slow but
constant motion, with legs shifting and antennae waving continually.
This quivering on the surface of the swarm gave it the appearance of
the fur of some terrible animal--fur blowing in the wind from some
unknown, deadly desert. Yet so cohesive was the entire mass, that I
sat close beneath it for the best part of two days and not more than a
dozen ants fell upon me. There was, however, a constant rain of
egg-cases and pupa-skins and the remains of scorpions and
grasshoppers, the residue of the booty which was being poured in.
These wrappings and inedible casing were all brought to the surface
and dropped. This was reasonable, but what I could not comprehend was
a constant falling of small living larvae. How anything except army
ants could emerge alive from such a sinister swarm was inconceivable.
It took some resolution to stand up under the nest, with my face only
a foot away from this slowly seething mass of widespread jaws. But I
had to discover where the falling larvae came from, and after a time I
found that they were immature army ants. Here and there a small worker
would appear, carrying in its mandibles a young larva; and while most
made their way through the maze of mural legs and bodies and
ultimately disappeared again, once in a while the burden was dropped
and fell to the floor of the outhouse. I can account for this only by
presuming that a certain percentage of the nurses were very young and
inexperienced workers and dropped their burdens inadvertently. There
was certainly no int