That very afternoon I found in a formicary which I then opened several large colonies, or parts of one colony of termites, nested within the limits of the disk and quite at home. The next day numbers of the winged white ants were found stored within the granaries of a large formicary. There is no reason to doubt that these insects were intended for food, in accordance with the quite universal habit of the _Formicariæ_. A curious habit has been noticed by most observers to occur in many species of ant, and it is one on which Mr. MacCook has a good deal to say. The habit in question consists in the ants transporting one another from place to place. The carrying ant seizes her comrade by the middle, and hurries along with it held aloft--the ant which is carried remaining quite motionless with all her legs drawn together. Huber supposed the process to be one enjoyable to both the insects concerned, and to be performed by mutual understanding and consent; but MacCook, in common with most other observers, supposes that it is merely a rough and primitive way of communicating to fellow-workers the locality where their services are required. He says:-- Keeping these facts in mind, we have a key to the solution of the press-gang operations which Lincecum observed among the agriculturals, and which have been fully described in other species. In the absence of any common head or directory, and of all executive officers, a change of location or any other concerted movement must be carried forward by the willing co-operation of individuals. At first sight, the act of seizing and carrying off workers does not appear like an appeal to free-will. It is indeed coercive, so far as the first act goes. But, in point of fact, the coercion ceases the moment the captive is set down within the precincts of the new movement. The carrier-ant has depended upon securing her consent and co-operation by thus bringing her within the circle of activity for which her service is sought. As a rule, no doubt, the deported ant at once yields to the influence around her, and drops into the current of fresh enterprise, in which she moves with as entire freedom and as independently as any other worker. But she is apparently under no restraint, and if she so please, may return to her former haunts. _Certain Ants of Africa._--Livingstone says of certain ants of Africa:--