Though _structor_ and _barbara_ make seed collecting the business of their lives, they will, at least in times of scarcity, eagerly devour animal food if it happen to fall in their way, and in the harvesting trains a few ants may occasionally be seen carrying small dead insects and the like. Once I threw a dead grasshopper down close to a nest of _barbara_; it was immediately seized upon, and--after strenuous efforts had been made to dismember it above ground, some ants straining back the legs and wings, while others rushed in to gnaw at the muscles where the tension was greatest,--carried down below. On the following morning the wings of the grasshopper were to be seen on the rubbish heap in front of the nest. Dead house-flies and the larvæ of bees or wasps were at times readily devoured by my captive ants (_barbara_). I have also seen large numbers of _structors_ engaged in picking the bones of a dead lizard, and was once a witness of the following singular contest between a soft-bodied, smooth, greyish caterpillar, exactly an inch in length, and two medium-sized _barbara_ ants. The ants were mere pigmies in comparison of their prey, for as such I believe they regarded the caterpillar, but they gripped its soft body with set mandibles, showing the most savage determination not to loose their hold. When I first detected the group the war was being waged in a tuft of grass over one of the entrances to the ants' nest, and the caterpillar was striding along the leaves, or thrusting itself between the culms in the hope to shake off or brush away its little persecutors. From time to time the caterpillar would turn viciously round and endeavour to pluck away its assailants, but though it actually succeeded in stripping off by means of its forelegs and mouth five of the six legs of one of the ants which was within its reach, they never once released their hold. At length a chance movement of mine shook the grass leaf on which they were, and ants and caterpillar rolled together down a steep and rocky slope to about four feet distant. They tumbled over and over several times, but still the ants gripped their prey as firmly as ever. The last endeavour of the giant victim was to rub off the ants by burrowing into the soil, but on uncovering its retreat, I saw that their positions were still the same. After watching this struggle for twenty minutes, time failed me, and I returned home, carrying with me, however, the combatants; and when on my return I opened the box in which they were imprisoned, these bull-dog ants were clinging with mandibles locked as firmly as ever, and now as I write, in death they are clinging still, drowned in a sea of spirits of wine.