THE ANIMAL KINGDOM. 169 



The ingenious Huber wished to see how far the depend- 

 ence of the two social classes went, and soon perceived that 

 the chiefs, left to themselves, were quite unable to provide 

 for their wants even in the midst of abundance. This 

 naturalist, having inclosed thirty Amazons with a plentiful 

 supply of food, but without any slaves, saw that they fell 

 into a state of the utmost apathy, although he placed the 

 larvae and nymphs alongside of them in order to stimulate 

 them to work. No work whatever was done, and the re- 

 cluses would every one have died of hunger rather than eat 

 alone. Many had already died, when it occurred to the 

 Genevese savant to furnish them with a slave. She was 

 scarcely introduced among the dead and dying when she 

 was at work, giving food to the survivors, lavishing her 

 care upon the young larvae, and constructing shelter for 

 them. She saved the colony. 1 



1 Mr. Holt (Science Gossip, July, 1868) says the ants (probably Formica 

 fidiginosa) observed by him seemed to have but very little idea of locality, and 

 that, in their eagerness to obtain water, they fell into a tank in such numbers as 

 to threaten the extinction of the population. Mr. Frederick Ward, too (Science 

 Gossip, Aug., 1868), says that, having closely observed some in a glass formicary, 

 he found less order and method in their operations than he expected. They 

 seemed to work night and day : he sometimes turned on the gas suddenly at two 

 A. m., and found them as busy as ever ; still they did not seem to get on in a 

 workmanlike manner. He frequently noticed an ant come out with a piece of 

 dirt in its forceps, and run about apparently in a state of distraction, as if it did 

 not know what to do with it. Two ants were often seen tug;o;inor at the same 

 piece for a long while, which was certainly a waste of time ; and a piece of stone 

 was often dragged backward and forward by two ants in their galleries, from a 

 mere spirit of opposition, it would seem. Again, an ant might be seen to come 

 out of a gallery with something in its mouth, run about with it and put it down, 

 having apparently lost itself, a proceeding which it terminated by disappearing 

 down another hole. Sometimes, too, they would go on excavating without re- 



