The greatest beasts of the forest will fly before these terrible little insects, one of which is shown in the left-hand corner. A more remarkable sight even than an ant-bridge is perhaps an ant-nest, by which I mean, not an ants’ nest in the ordinary sense of the term, but a nest made of ants. The following quotation from the much-containing _Naturalist in Nicaragua_, page 25, will explain this hard saying. “They make their temporary habitations in hollow trees, and sometimes underneath large fallen trunks that offer suitable hollows. A nest that I came across in the latter situation was open at one side. The ants were clustered together in a dense mass like a great swarm of bees hanging from the roof, but reaching to the ground below. Their innumerable long legs looked like brown threads binding together the mass, which must have been at least a cubic yard in bulk, and contained hundreds of thousands of individuals, although many columns were outside, some bringing in the pupæ of ants, others the legs and dissected bodies of various insects. I was surprised to see in this living nest tubular passages leading down to the centre of the mass, kept open just as if it had been formed of inorganic materials. Down these holes the ants who were bringing in booty passed with their prey.” Of the many curiously constructed or strangely produced dwellings of ants, this made out of their own bodies is amongst the most remarkable. Many ants live in the interior of various plants. The plant generally benefits as much as the insect by this arrangement, so that there is a mutual dependence between the two, which in some cases is carried to such an extent that the life of one or both seems a necessary part of that of the other. In Borneo, for instance, a certain large tuber which grows on the branches of aged trees is always found inhabited by a certain red ant, of small size, but fierce disposition, which rushes out and attacks anyone who ventures at all near its dwelling. The seed of this tuber is disseminated in the same way as is our own mistletoe, through the agency of birds, that is to say, the seed being surrounded by a similar pulpy mass, which adheres to the branch on which it falls. Soon after germination the tuber, which is shaped something like a carrot, begins to develop, but whilst still quite small its growth ceases and in this state it would remain, and before long, die, if it should not happen to be found by the ants in question. If it should be, however, its life is assured. They immediately bore a hole at the base of the stem, upon which this enlarges to a great degree, so that soon there is room for them to excavate galleries in the cellular tissue of the interior, and to form a populous colony. The whole tuber is soon perforated in all directions, and becomes a living and growing formicarium, the great accretion of cellular tissue which has made this