The fat Histerid beetle was most amusing, getting out of breath every few feet, and abruptly stopping to rest, turning around in its tracks, standing almost on its head, and allowing the swarm of ants to run up over it and jump off. Then on it would go again, keeping up the terrific speed of two and a half inches a second for another yard. Its color was identical with the Ecitons' armor, and when it folded up, nothing could harm it. Once a worker stopped and antennæd it suspiciously, but aside from this, it was accepted as one of the line of marchers. Along the same route came the tiny Phorid flies, wingless but swift as shadows, rushing from side to side, over ants, leaves, débris, impatient only at the slowness of the army.
All the afternoon the insane circle revolved; at midnight the hosts were still moving, the second morning many had weakened and dropped their burdens, and the general pace had very appreciably slackened. But still the blind grip of instinct held them. On, on, on they must go! Always before in their nomadic life there had been a goal—a sanctuary of hollow tree, snug heart of bamboos—surely this terrible grind must end somehow. In this crisis, even the Spirit of the Army was helpless. Along the normal paths of Eciton life he could inspire endless enthusiasm, illimitable energy, but here his material units were bound upon the wheel of their perfection of instinct. Through sun and cloud, day and night, hour after hour there was found no Eciton with individual initiative enough to turn aside an ant's breadth from the circle which he had traversed perhaps fifteen times: the masters of the jungle had become their own mental prey.
Fewer and fewer now came along the well worn path; burdens littered the line of march, like the arms and accoutrements thrown down by a retreating army. At last a scanty single line struggled past—tired, hopeless, bewildered, idiotic and thoughtless to the last. Then some half dead Eciton straggled from the circle along the beach, and threw the line behind him into confusion. The desperation of total exhaustion had accomplished what necessity and opportunity and normal life could not. Several others followed his scent instead of that leading back toward the outhouse, and as an amoeba gradually flows into one of its own pseudopodia, so the forlorn hope of the great Eciton army passed slowly down the beach and on into the jungle. Would they die singly and in bewildered groups, or would the remnant draw together, and again guided by the super-mind of its Mentor lay the foundation of another army, and again come to nest in my outhouse?
Thus was the ending still unfinished, the finale buried in the future—and in this we find the fascination of Nature and of Science. Who can be bored for a moment in the short existence vouchsafed us here; with dramatic beginnings barely hidden in the dust, with the excitement of every moment of the present, and with all of cosmic possibility lying just concealed in the future, whether of Betelgeuze, of Amoeba or—of ourselves? Vogue la galère!
APPENDIX OF SCIENTIFIC NAMES
| Page | Line | |||
| [4] | 26 | Moriche Oriole; Icterus chrysocephalus (Linné) | ||
| [8] | 10 | Toad; Bufo guttatus Schneid. | ||
| [18] | 3 | Bat; Furipterus horrens (F. Cuv.) | ||
| 4 | Large Bats; Vampyrus spectrum (Linné) | |||
| 6 | Vampire Bats; Desmodus rotundus (Geoff.) | |||
| [22] | 5 | Giant Catfish, Boom-boom; Doras granulosus Valen. | ||
| [23] | 5 | Kiskadee; Pitangus s. sulphuratus (Linné) | ||
| [25] | 26 | Parrakeets; Touit batavica (Bodd.) | ||
| 26 | Great Black Orioles; Ostinops d. decumanus (Pall.) | |||
| [26] | 5 | House Wrens; Troglodytes musculus clarus Berl. and Hart | ||
| [29] | 5 | Coati-mundi; Nasua n. nasua (Linné) | ||
| [32] | 2 | Frog; Phyllomedusa sp. | ||
| [34] | 18 | Mazaruni Daisies; Sipanea pratensis Aubl. | ||
| 20 | Button Weed; Spermacoce sp. | |||
| [36] | 23 | Melancholy Tyrant; Tyrannus melancholicus satrapa (Cab. and Hein.) | ||
| [37] | 2 | Monarch; Anosia plexippus (Linné) | ||
| [38] | 7 | Red-breasted Blue Chatterer; Cotinga cotinga Linné | ||
| 18 | Yellow Papilio; Papilio thoas Linné | |||
| [49] | 26 | Parrakeets; Touit batavica (Bodd.) | ||
| [52] | 3 | Purple-throated Cotinga; Cotinga cayana (Linné) | ||
| [53] | 15 | Dark-breasted Mourner; Lipaugus simplex Licht. | ||
| [54] | 26 | Toucans; Ramphastus vitellinus Licht. | ||
| [59] | 6 | White-fronted Ant-bird; Pithys albifrons (Linné) | ||
| [60] | 16 | Army Ants; Eciton burchelli Westwood | ||
| [97] | 10 | Great Green Kingfisher; Chloroceryle amazona (Lath.) | ||
| 11 | Tiny Emerald Kingfisher; Chloroceryle americana (Gmel.) | |||
| [103] | 25 | Gecko; Thecadactylus rapicaudus (Houtt.) | ||
| [109] | 8 | Howling Monkeys; Alouatta seniculus macconnelli Elliot | ||
| [113] | 7 | Bower Bird; Ptilonorhynchus violaceus (Vieill.) | ||
| [116] | 24 | Cassava; Janipha manihot Kth. | ||
| [126] | 20 | Frog, Gawain; Phyllomedusa sp. | ||
| [132] | 17 | Marine Toad; Bufo marinus (Linné) | ||
| [133] | 8 | Scarlet-thighed Leaf-walker; Phyllobates inguinalis. | ||
| [149] | 2 | Attas, Leaf-cutting Ants; Atta cephalotes (Fab.) | ||
| [151] | 12 | Fruit Bats; Vampyrus spectrum (Linné) | ||
| [152] | 11 | King Vulture; Gypagus papa (Linné) | ||
| 11 | Harpy Eagle; Harpia harpyja (Linné) | |||
| [163] | 3 | Ani; Crotophaga ani Linné | ||
| 7 | Marine Toad; Bufo marinus (Linné) | |||
| [164] | 19 | White-faced Opossum; Metachirus o. opossum (Linné) | ||
| [173] | 1 | Attas, Leaf-cutting Ants; Atta cephalotes (Fab.) | ||
| 5 | Hummingbird; Phoethornis r. ruber (Linné) | |||
| [174] | 7 | Tamandua; Tamandua t. tetradactyla (Linné) | ||
| [175] | 1 | Trogon; Trogon s. strigilatus (Linné) | ||
| 9 | Tarantula Hawks; Pepsis sp. | |||
| [181] | 17 | Cicada larvæ; Quesada gigas Oliv. | ||
| [182] | 5 | Roaches; Attaphila sp. | ||
| [231] | 26 | Manatee; Trichechus manatus Linné | ||
| [232] | 24 | Crocodile; Caiman sclerops (Schneid.) | ||
| [233] | 6 | Jacana; Jacana j. jacana (Linné) | ||
| 8 | Gallinule; Ionornis martinicus (Linné) | |||
| 9 | Green Herons; Butorides striata Linné | |||
| 10 | Egrets; Leucophoyx t. thula (Molina) | |||
| [233] | 17 | Kiskadees; Pitangus sulphuratus (Linné) | ||
| 19 | Black Witch; Crotophaga ani (Linné) | |||
| 19 | House Wren; Troglodytes musculus clarus Berl. and Hart | |||
| 22 | Manatee; Trichechus manatus (Linné) | |||
| [242] | 1 | Jacana; Jacana j. jacana (Linné) | ||
| 3 | Gallinule; Ionornis martinicus (Linné) | |||
| [243] | 15 | Mongoose; Mungos mungo (Gmel.) | ||
| [246] | 11 | Little Egret; Leucophoyx t. thula (Molina) | ||
| 14 | Tri-colored Heron; Hydranassa tricolor (P. L. S. Mull.) | |||
| 15 | Little Blue Heron; Florida c. caerulea (Linné) | |||
| [249] | 14 | White Egret; Casmerodius egretta (Gmel.) | ||
| [250] | 10 | Night Heron; Nyctanassa violacea cayennensis (Linné) | ||
| [254] | 1 | Giant Catfish, Boom-boom; Doras granulosus Valen. | ||
| [256] | 6 | Long-armed Beetle; Acrocinus longimanus (Linné) | ||
| [276] | 10 | Rufus Hummingbird; Phoethornis r. ruber (Linné) | ||
| [278] | 16 | Tapping Wasp; Synoeca irina Spinola | ||
| [280] | 10 | Mazaruni Daisy; Sipanea pratensis Aubl. | ||
| 21 | Trogons; Trogonurus c. curucui (Linné) | |||
| [282] | 10 | Quadrille Bird; Leucolepis musica musica (Bodd.) | ||
| [284] | 3 | Bubble Bugs; Cercopis ruber | ||
| [289] | 16 | Army Ants; Eciton burchelli Westwood |