, agglomerated
with cement, and forming many rows of little ridges and turrets. The
difference in color from the superficial soil of the vicinity is owing
to their being formed of the under-soil, brought up from a considerable
depth.

It is very rarely that the ants are seen at work on these mounds; the
entrances seem to be generally closed; only now and then, when some
particular work is going on, are the galleries opened. The entrances are
small and numerous; in the larger hillocks it would require a great
amount of excavation to get at the main galleries; but I succeeded in
removing portions of the dome in smaller hillocks, and then I found that
the minor entrances converged, at the depth of about two feet, to one
broad, elaborately worked gallery or mine, which was four or five inches
in diameter.

The habit in the Sauba ant of clipping and carrying away immense
quantities of leaves has long been recorded in books on natural history.
When employed on this work their processions look like a multitude of
animated leaves on the march. In some places I found an accumulation of
such leaves, all circular pieces, about the size of a sixpence, lying on
the pathway, unattended by ants, and at some distance from the colony.
Such heaps are always found to be removed when the place is revisited
the next day. In course of time I had plenty of opportunities of seeing
them at work. They mount the trees in multitudes, the individuals being
all worker-miners. Each one places itself on the surface of a leaf, and
cuts with its sharp, scissor-like jaws, and by a sharp jerk detaches the
piece. Sometimes they let the leaf drop to the ground, where a little
heap accumulates until carried away by another relay of workers; but
generally each marches off with the piece it has operated upon, and, as
all take the same road to their colony, the path they follow becomes in
a short time smooth and bare, looking like the impression of a
cart-wheel through the herbage.

It is a most interesting sight to see the vast host of busy diminutive
laborers occupied on this work. Unfortunately, they choose cultivated
trees for their purpose. This ant is quite peculiar to tropical America,
as is the entire genus to which it belongs. It sometimes despoils the
young trees of species growing wild in its native forests; but it seems
to prefer, when within reach, plants imported from other countries, such
as the coffee- and orange-trees.... The heavily-laden w