The driver-ants of Africa are represented in tropical America by the _Ecitons_—a family containing numerous species—of which we have some interesting accounts by travellers who were, at the same time, naturalists. Speaking of the _Eciton drepanophora_, Mr. Bates, in his well-known _Naturalist on the River Amazon_, says: “When the pedestrian falls in with a train of these ants, the first signal given him is a twittering and restless movement of small flocks of plain-coloured birds (ant-thrushes) in the jungle. If this be disregarded until he advances a few steps farther, he is sure to fall into trouble, and find himself suddenly attacked by numbers of the ferocious little creatures. They swarm up his legs with incredible rapidity, each one driving his pincer-like jaws into his skin, and, with the purchase thus obtained, doubling in its tail and stinging with all its might. There is no course left but to run for it.” However, it is almost as easy to “fly from oneself” (a hard thing, Horace tells us) as from ants that have once crawled up beneath one’s garments and embedded their jaws in one’s flesh. Only after a halt, and special attention paid to each individual, are these to be got rid of, and then only by degrees, since these determined little warriors—all undecorated, and without even a thought of crosses or promotions—are content to let their bodies be torn from their heads, as long as they can leave the latter, with the jaws attached, sticking in the wounds they have made. “The errand,” continues Mr. Bates, “of the vast ant armies is plunder, and wherever they move the whole animal world is set in commotion, and every creature tries to get out of their way. But it is, especially, the various tribes of wingless insects that have cause for fear, such as heavy-bodied spiders, ants of other species, maggots, caterpillars, larvæ of cockroaches, and so forth, all of which live under fallen leaves or in decaying wood.” Unlike the bashikonay ants that we have been considering, these Ecitons do not ascend trees to any great height, so that young birds in their nests for the most part escape. Both species consist, like other ant communities, of males, females, and workers, but the differentiation of the latter into two castes, differing both in size and shape from one another, is most marked amongst the Ecitons. The members composing these two classes are known as the worker-majors and worker-minors respectively, and whilst the latter make up the majority of the host, and thus present the standard size and appearance, the former are much larger, with heads disproportionately big, and greatly lengthened jaws.