352 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



but locusts, potato-beetles, mosquitoes, noisome as they may be con- 

 sidered, are, in comparison with ants, what a promiscuous mob is in 

 comparison with a well-trained and organized army. Each ant, like 

 an experienced soldier, knows whether rationally or instinctively it 

 matters not that it will be systematically supported by its comrades. 

 What would be the prospects of agriculture in Western Asia, in 

 Northern Africa, or in the Western States of the American Union, if 

 the locusts, when engaged in desolating a field, were to attack, en 

 masse, any man or bird who should interfere with them ? But, on 

 the contrary, they allow themselves to be slaughtered in detail, each 

 indifferent to the fate of his neighbor. 



Ants evince that close mutual sympathy which, to an equal extent, 

 can be traced probably in man alone, and which has, in both these 

 cases, proved one of the primary factors in the develojmient of civili- 

 zation. Had man been devoid of this impulse, he would have re- 

 mained a mere wandering savage perhaps a mere anthropoid, occur- 

 ring as a rare species in equatorial districts. Without a similar im- 

 pulse, the Ecitons would have ranked among the many solitary species 

 of Hymenoptera. Of the mutual helpfulness of these same Ecitons, Mr. 

 Belt gives us some most interesting cases which came under his own 

 observation: " One day, when watching a small column of these ants 

 (Eciton hamata), I placed a little stone on one of them to secure it. 

 The next that approached, as soon as it discovered its situation, ran 

 backward in an agitated manner, and soon communicated the intel- 

 ligence to the others. They rushed to the rescue: some bit at the 

 stone and tried to move it ; others seized the prisoner by the legs, and 

 tugged with such force that I thought the legs would be pulled off; 

 but they persevered until they got the captive free. I next covered 

 one up with a piece of clay, leaving only the ends of the antennas pro- 

 jecting. It was soon discovered by its fellows, who set to work im- 

 mediately, and, by biting off pieces of the clay, soon liberated it. 

 Another time I found a very few of them passing along at intervals. 

 I confined one of these under a little piece of clay, with his head pro- 

 jecting. Several ants passed it, but at last one discovered it and tried 

 to pull it up, but it could not. It immediately set off at a great rate, 

 and I thought it had deserted its comrade ; but it had only gone for 

 assistance, for in a short time about a dozen ants came hurrying up, 

 evidently fully informed of the circumstances of the case, for they made 

 directly for their imprisoned comrade, and soon set him free. The ex- 

 citement and ardor with which they carried on their exertions for the 

 rescue could not have been greater if they had been human beings." 



Such cases as these are of the greater moment because many other 

 social and semi-social animals treat an unfortunate companion in a 

 very different manner. It is on record that a rook, which had got en- 

 tangled among the twigs of a tree, was pecked and buffeted to death 

 by its neighbors, despite the efforts of its mate for its protection. 



