where the others were; but the puma had entered the glade from that
side, and it was therefore directly in his way: he would have run right
in its teeth by going toward the cinchona-trees. He next thought of
slipping quietly down, and getting into the woods behind him.
Unfortunately, the tree on which he was stood out in the glade quite
apart from any others, the puma would see him go off, and, of course,
could overtake him in a dozen leaps. These thoughts passed through the
boy's mind in a few seconds of time; and in a few seconds of time he was
convinced that his best course would be to remain where he was, and keep
quiet. Perhaps the puma would not notice him--as yet he had not.
No doubt he would have done so, had there been nothing else on the spot
to take off his attention; but just as he came into the open ground, his
eyes fell upon the ant-eaters, where they lay squatted and licking up
the termites. He had entered the glade in a sort of skulking trot, but
the moment he saw the tamanoirs he halted, drew his body into a
crouching attitude, and remained thus for some moments, while his long
tail oscillated from side to side, as that of a cat when about to spring
upon a mouse or a sparrow. Just at this moment the tamanoir, having
turned round to address some conversation to her young companion, espied
him, and sprang to her feet. She recognised in the puma--as in others
of his race--a deadly enemy. With one sweep of her fore-arm she flung
the young one behind her, until it rested against the wall of the
ant-hill, and then, following in all haste, threw herself into an erect
attitude in front of her young, covering it with her body. She was now
standing firm upon her hind-feet--her back resting against the mud
wall--but her long snout had entirely disappeared! That was held close
along her breast, and entirely concealed by the shaggy tail, which for
this purpose had been brought up in front. Her defence rested in her
strong fore-arms, which, with the great claws standing at right angles,
were now held out in a threatening manner. The young one, no doubt
aware of some danger, had drawn itself into its smallest bulk, and was
clewed up behind her.
The puma dashed forward, open-mouthed, and began the attack. He looked
as though he would carry everything by the first assault; but a sharp
tear from the tamanoir's claws drew the blood from his cheek, and
although it rendered him more furious, it seemed to increase his
caution. In the two or three successive attempts he kept prudently out
of reach of these terrible weapons. His adversary held her fore-legs
wide open, as though she was desirous of getting the other to rush
between them, that she might clutch him, after the manner of the bears.
This was exactly what she wanted, and in this consists the chief mode of
defence adopted by these animals. The puma, however, seemed to be up to
her trick.
This thrust-and-parry game continued for some minutes, and might have
lasted longer, had it not been for the young tamanoir. This foolish
little creature, who up to that moment was not very sure what the fuss
was all about, had the imprudent curiosity to thrust out its slender
snout. The puma espied it, and making a dart forward, seized the snout
in his great teeth, and jerked the animal from under. It uttered a low
squall, but the next moment its head was "crunched" between the muscular
jaws of the puma.
The old one now appeared to lose all fear and caution. Her tail fell
down. Her long snout was unsheathed from under its protection, and she
seemed undecided what to do. But she was not allowed much time to
reflect. The puma, seeing the snout, the most vulnerable part,
uncovered, launched himself forward like an arrow, and caught hold of it
in his bristling fangs. Then having dragged his victim forward, he
flung her upon her breast, and mounting rapidly on her back, proceeded
to worry her at his pleasure.
Although Leon pitied the poor tamanoir, yet he dared not interfere, and
would have permitted the puma to finish his work, but at that moment a
sharp pain, which he suddenly felt in his ankle, caused him to start
upon his seat, and utter an involuntary scream.
CHAPTER TWENTY SIX.
ATTACK OF THE WHITE ANTS.
Leon looked down to ascertain what had caused him such a sudden pain.
The sight that met his eyes made his blood run cold. The ground below
was alive and moving. A white stratum of ants covered it on all sides
to the distance of several yards. _They were ascending the tree_! Nay,
more; a string of them had already crawled up; the trunk was crowded by
others coming after; and several were upon his feet, and legs, and
thighs! It was one of these that had stung him!
The fate of the ais--which he had just witnessed--and the sight of the
hideous host, caused him again to scream out. At the same time he had
risen to his feet, and was pulling himself up among the upper branches.
He soon reached the highest; but he had not been a moment there, when he
reflected that it would be no security. The creatures were crawling
upwards as fast as they could come.
His next thought was to descend again, leap from the tree, and crushing
the vermin under his feet, make for the bark-cutters. He had made up
his mind to this course, and was already half-down, when _he remembered
the puma_! In his alarm at the approach of the ants he had quite
forgotten this enemy, and he now remembered that it was directly in the
way of his intended escape. He turned his eyes in that direction. It
was not there! The ant-bears were still upon the ground--the young one
dead, and the mother struggling in her last agonies; but no puma!
The boy began to hope that his cries had frightened him off. His hope
was short-lived; for on glancing around the glade, he now beheld the
fierce brute crouching among the grass, and evidently coming towards
him! What was to be done? Would the puma attack him in the tree?
Surely he would; but what better would he be on the ground? No better,
but worse. At all events he had not time for much reflection, for
before two seconds the fierce puma was close to the tree. Leon was
helpless--he gave himself up for lost. He could only cry for help, and
he raised his voice to its highest pitch.
The puma did not spring up the tree at once, as Leon had expected. On
the contrary, it crouched round and round with glaring eyes and wagging
tail, as if calculating the mode of attack. Its lips were red--stained
with the blood of the ant-eaters--and this added to the hideousness of
its appearance. But it needed not that, for it was hideous enough at
any time.
Leon kept his eyes upon it, every moment expecting it to spring up the
tree. All at once he saw it give a sudden start, and at the same
instant he heard a hissing noise, as if something passed rapidly through
the air. Ha! something sticking in the body of the puma! It is an
arrow,--a poisoned arrow! The puma utters a fierce growl--it turns upon
itself--the arrow is crushed between its teeth. Another "hist!"--
another arrow! Hark! a well-known voice--well-known voices--the voices
of Don Pablo and Guapo! See! they burst into the glade--Don Pablo with
his axe, and Guapo with his unerring gravatana!
The puma turns to flee. He has already reached the border of the wood;
he staggers--the poison is doing its work. Hurrah! he is down; but the
poison does not kill him, for the axe of Don Pablo is crashing through
his skull. Hurrah! the monster is dead, and Leon is triumphantly borne
off on the shoulders of the faithful Guapo!
Don Pablo dragged the puma away, in order that they might get his fine
skin. The ant-eaters, both of which were now dead, he left behind, as
he saw that the termites were crawling thickly around them, and had
already begun their work of devastation. Strange to say, as the party
returned that way, going to dinner, not a vestige remained either of the
ais or the ant-eaters, except a few bones and some portions of coarse
hair. The rest of all these animals had been cleared off by the ants,
and carried into the cells of their hollow cones!
It was, no doubt, the noise of the bark-hunters that had started the
ant-eaters abroad, for these creatures usually prowl only in the night.
The same may have aroused the fierce puma from his lair, although he is
not strictly a nocturnal hunter.
A curious incident occurred as they approached the glade on their way
home. The male tamanoir was roused from his nest among the dry leaves,
and Guapo, instead of running upon him and killing the creature, warned
them all to keep a little back, and he would show them some fun. Guapo
now commenced shaking the leaves, so that they rattled as if rain was
falling upon them. At this the ant-eater jerked up its broad tail, and
appeared to shelter itself as with an umbrella! Guapo then went towards
it, and commenced driving it before him just as if it had been a sheep
or goat, and in this manner he took it all the way to the house. Of
course Guapo took care not to irritate it; for, when that is done, the
ant-eater will either turn out of his way or stop to defend itself.
The tamanoir is not so defenceless a creature as might at first sight be
imagined by considering his small toothless mouth and slow motions. His
mode of defence is that which has been described, and which is quite
sufficient against the tiger-cat, the ocelot, and all the smaller
species of feline animals. No doubt the old female would have proved a
match for the puma had she not been thrown off her guard by his seizing
upon her young. It is even asserted that the great ant-bear sometimes
hugs the jaguar to death; but this I believe to be a mistake, as the
latter is far too powerful and active to be thus conquered. Doubtless
the resemblance of the jaguar to some of the smaller spotted cats of
these countries, leads to a great many misconceptions concerning the
prowess of the _American tiger_.
Besides the tamanoir there are two, or perhaps three, other species of
_ant-bears_ in the forests of South America. These, however, are so
different in habits and appearance, that they might properly be classed
as a separate genus of animals. They are _tree-climbers_, which the
tamanoir is not, spite of his great claws. They pursue the ants that
build their nests upon the high branches, as well as the wasps and bees;
and to befit them for this life, they are furnished with _naked
prehensile tails_, like the opossums and monkeys. These are
characteristics entirely distinct from those of the _Myrmecophaga
jubata_, or _great_ ant-eater.
One of these species is the _tamandua_, called by the Spano-Americans
_Osso hormiguero_ (ant-bear). The tamandua is much less than the
tamanoir, being only three and a half feet in length, while the latter
is over seven. The former is of a stouter build, with neither so long a
snout in proportion, nor such claws. The claws, moreover, are made for
tree-climbing, and are not so much in the way when the animal walks on
the ground. It is, therefore, a more active creature, and stands better
upon its limbs. Its fur is short and silky, but the tail is nearly
naked, and, as already stated, highly prehensile, although it does not
sleep hanging by the tail as some other animals do.
The tamandua is usually of a dull straw-colour, although it varies in
this respect, so that several species have been supposed to exist. It
spends most of its time upon the trees; and in addition to its ant-diet,
it feeds upon wild honey, and bees too, whenever it can catch them. The
female, like the tamanoir, produces only one young at a birth, and like
the other species, carries it upon her back until it is able to provide
for itself. The tamandua has sometimes been called _tridactyla_, or the
"three-toed ant-eater," because it has only three claws upon each of its
fore-feet, whereas the tamanoir is provided with four.
Another species of "ant-bear," differing from both in size and in many
of its habits, is the "little ant-eater" (_Myrmecophaga didactyla_).
This one has only two claws on each fore-foot, hence its specific name.
It is a very small creature--not larger than the _common grey_
squirrel--with a prehensile tail like the tamandua. The tail, however,
is not entirely naked--only on the under side near the point. It is not
so good a walker as the three-toed kind, though more active on its feet
than the tamanoir. Standing upon its hind-feet, and supporting itself
also by the tail--which it has already thrown around some branch--the
little ant-eater uses its fore-feet as hands to carry food to its mouth.
It lives among the trees, and feeds upon wasps, bees, and especially
the larvae of both; but it does not use the tongue to any great extent.
It is, on this account, an essentially different sort of animal.
The little ant-eater is usually of a bright yellow colour, brownish on
the back; but there are many varieties in this respect, and some are of
a snowy whiteness. Its fur is soft and silky, sometimes slightly curled
or matted at the points, and the tail fur is annulated, or ringed, with
the prevailing colours of the body.
So much for the ant-bears of America.
CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN.
THE ANT-LION.
Ants are disagreeable insects in any country, but especially so in warm
tropical climates. Their ugly appearance, their destructive habits,
but, above all, the pain of their sting, or rather bite--for ants do not
sting as wasps, but bite with the jaws, and then infuse poison into the
wound--all these render them very unpopular creatures. A superficial
thinker would suppose that such troublesome insects could be of no use,
and would question the propriety of Nature in having created them. But
when we give the subject a little attention, we find that they were not
created in vain. Were it not for these busy creatures, what would
become of the vast quantities of decomposing substances found in some
countries? What would be done with the decaying vegetation and the dead
animal matter? Why, in many places, were it not consumed by these
insects, and reorganised into new forms of life, it would produce
pestilence and death; and surely these are far more disagreeable things
than ants.
Of ants there are many different kinds; but the greatest number of
species belong to warm countries, where, indeed, they are most useful.
Some of these species are so curious in their habits, that whole volumes
have been written about them, and naturalists have spent a lifetime in
their study and observation. Their social and domestic economy is of
the most singular character, more so than that of the bees; and I am
afraid here to give a single trait of their lives, lest I should be led
on to talk too much about them. I need only mention the wonderful nests
or hills which some species build--those great cones of twenty feet in
height, and so strong that wild bulls run up their sides and stand upon
their tops without doing them the least injury! Others make their
houses of cylindrical form, rising several feet from the surface.
Others, again, prefer nesting in the trees, where they construct large
cellular masses of many shapes, suspending them from the highest
branches; while many species make their waxen dwellings in hollow
trunks, or beneath the surface of the earth. There is not a species,
however, whose habits, fully-observed and described, would not strike
you with astonishment. Indeed, it is difficult to believe all that is
related about these insects by naturalists who have made them their
study. One can hardly understand how such little creatures can be
gifted with so much intelligence, or _instinct_, as some choose to call
it.
Man is not the only enemy of the ants. If he were so, it is to be
feared that these small insignificant creatures would soon make the
earth too hot for him. So prolific are they, that if left to themselves
our whole planet would, in a short period, become a gigantic ants' nest?
Nature has wisely provided against the over increase of the ant family.
No living thing has a greater variety of enemies than they. In all the
divisions of animated nature there are ant-destroyers--_ant-eaters_! To
begin with the mammalia, man himself feeds upon them--for there are
tribes of Indians in South America, the principal part of whose food
consists of dried termites, which they bake into a kind of "paste!"
There are quadrupeds that live exclusively on them, as the ant-bear
already described, and the _pangolins_, or scaly ant-eaters of the
Eastern continent. There are birds, too, of many sorts that devour the
ants; and there are even some who make them exclusively their food, as
the genus _Myothera_, or "ant-catchers." Many kinds of reptiles, both
snakes and lizards, are ant-eaters; and, what is strangest of all, there
are _insects_ that prey upon them!
No wonder, then, with such a variety of enemies that the ants are kept
within proper limits, and are not allowed to overrun the earth.
The observations just made are very similar to those that were addressed
by Dona Isidora to the little Leona, one day when they were left alone.
The others had gone about their usual occupation of bark-cutting, and
these, of course, remained at home to take care of the house and cook
the dinner. That was already hanging over a fire outside the house; for
in these hot countries it is often more convenient to do the cooking
out-of-doors.
Dona Isidora, busy with some sewing, was seated under the shadow of the
banana-trees, and the pretty little Leona was playing near her. Leona
had been abusing the ants, partly on account of their having so
frightened Leon, and partly because one of the red species had bitten
herself the day before; and it was for this reason that her mother had
entered into such explanations regarding these creatures, with a view of
exculpating them from the bitter accusations urged against them by
Leona. Talking about ants very naturally led them to cast their eyes to
the ground to see if any of the creatures were near; and sure enough
there were several of the red ones wandering about. Just then the eyes
of Dona Isidora rested upon a very different insect, and she drew the
attention of her daughter to it. It was an insect of considerable size,
being full an inch in length, with an elongated oval body, and a small
flat head. From the head protruded two great horny jaws, that bore some
resemblance to a pair of calliper compasses. Its legs were short and
very unfitted for motion. Indeed they were not of much use for that
purpose, as it could make very little way on them, but crawled only
sidewards, or backwards, with great apparent difficulty. The creature
was of a greyish or sand colour; and in the sand, where it was seated,
it might not have been observed at all had not the lady's eyes been
directed upon the very spot. But Dona Isidora, who was a very good
entomologist, recognised it; and, knowing that it was a very curious
insect, on this account called the attention of her daughter to it.
"What is it, mamma?" inquired the little Leona, bending forward to
examine it.
"The _ant-lion_."
"The ant-lion! Why, mamma, it is an insect! How then can it be called
lion?"
"It is a name given it," replied the lady, "on account of its fierce
habits, which, in that respect, assimilate it to its powerful
namesake,--the king of the beasts; and, indeed, this little creature has
more strength and ferocity in proportion to its size than even the lion
himself."
"But why the _ant-lion_, mamma?"
"Because it preys principally on ants. I have said there are insect
ant-eaters. This is one of them."
"But how can such a slow creature as that get hold of them? Why the
ants could crawl out of its way in a moment!"
"That is true. Nevertheless it manages to capture as many as it
requires. Remember `the ace is not always to the swift.' It is by
stratagem it succeeds in taking its prey--a very singular stratagem too.
If you will sit back and not frighten it, I have no doubt it will soon
give you an opportunity of seeing how it manages the matter."
Leona took a seat by the side of her mother. They were both at just
such a distance from the ant-lion that they could observe every movement
it made; but for a considerable time it remained quiet; no doubt,
because they had alarmed it. In the interval Dona Isidora imparted to
her daughter some further information about its natural history.
"The ant-lion (_Myrmeleori_)," said she, "is not an insect in its
perfect state, but only the _larva_ of one. The perfect insect is a
very different creature, having wings and longer legs. It is one of the
_neuropterous_ tribe, or those with nerved wings. The wings of this
species rest against each other, forming a covering over its body, like
the roof upon a house. They are most beautifully reticulated like the
finest lace-work, and variegated with dark spots, that give the insect a
very elegant appearance. Its habits are quite different to those which
it follows when a larva, or in that state when it is the ant-lion. It
flies but little during the day, and is usually found quietly sitting
amongst the leaves of plants, and seems to be one of the most pacific
and harmless of insects. How very different with the larva--the very
reverse--See!"
Dona Isidora pointed to the ant-lion that was just then beginning to
bestir itself, and both sat silent regarding it attentively.
First, then, the little creature going backwards, and working with its
callipers, traced a circle on the surface of the sand. This circle was
between two and three inches in diameter. Having completed it, it now
commenced to clear out all the sand within the circle. To accomplish
this, it was seen to scrape up the sand with one of its fore-feet, and
shovel a quantity of it upon its flat head; then, giving a sudden jerk
of the neck, it pitched the sand several inches outside the traced
circumference. This operation it repeated so often, and so adroitly,
that in a very short time a round pit began to show itself in the
surface of the ground. Wherever it encountered a stone, this was raised
between its callipers and pitched out beyond the ring. Sometimes stones
occurred that were too large to be thrown out in this way. These it
managed to get upon its back, and, then crawling cautiously up the sides
of the pit, it tumbled them upon the edge and rolled them away. Had it
met with a stone so large as to render this impossible, it would have
left the place, and chosen another spot of ground. Fortunately this was
not the case, and they had an opportunity of watching the labour to its
conclusion.
For nearly an hour they sat watching it--of course not neglecting their
other affairs--and, at the end of that time, the ant-lion had jerked out
so much sand, that a little funnel-shaped pit was formed nearly as deep
as it was wide. This was its trap, and it was now finished and ready
for action.
Having made all its arrangements, it had nothing more to do than remain
at the bottom of the pit and wait patiently until some unfortunate ant
should chance to come that way and fall in; and where these insects were
constantly wandering over the ground, such an accident would, sooner or
later, be certain to take place.
Lest the ant should peep into the pit, discover its hideous form below,
and then retreat, this ant-lion had actually the cunning to bury its
body in the sand, leaving only a small portion of its head to be seen.