INSTINCT 199 



interesting spectacle to behold the masters carefully 

 carrying 1 (instead of being carried by, as in the case of 

 F. rufescens) their slaves in their jaws. Another day 

 my attention was struck by about a score of the slave- 

 makers haunting the same spot, and evidently not in 

 search of food ; they approached and were vigorously 

 repulsed by an independent community of the slave- 

 species (F. fusca) ; sometimes as many as three of these 

 ants clinging to the legs of the slave-making F. san- 

 guinea. The latter ruthlessly killed their small op- 

 ponents, and carried their dead bodies as food to their 

 nest, twenty-nine yards distant ; but they were pre- 

 vented from getting any pupae to rear as slaves. I then 

 dug up a small parcel of the pupae of F. -fusca from an- 

 other nest, and put them down on a bare spot near the 

 place of combat ; they were eagerly seized, and carried 

 off by the tyrants, who perhaps fancied that, after all, 

 they had been victorious in their late combat. 



At the same time I laid on the same place a small 

 parcel of the pupae of another species, F. flava, with a 

 few of these little yellow ants still clinging to the frag- 

 ments of the nest. This species is sometimes, though 

 rarely, made into slaves, as has been described by Mr. 

 Smith. Although so small a species, it is very cour- 

 ageous, and I have seen it ferociously attack other ants. 

 In one instance I found to my surprise an independent 

 community of F. flava under a stone beneath a nest of 

 the slave-making F. sanguinea ; and when I had acci- 

 dentally disturbed both nests, the little ants attacked 

 their big neighbours with surprising courage. Now I 

 was curious to ascertain whether F. sanguinea could 

 distinguish the pupae of F. fusca, which they habitually 

 make into slaves, from those of the little and furious F. 

 flava, which they rarely capture, and it was evident 

 that they did at once distinguish them : for we have 

 •een that they eagerly and instantly seized the pupae of 

 F. fusca, whereas they were much terrified when they 

 came across the pupae, or even the earth from the nest 

 of F. flava, and quickly ran away ; but in about a 

 quarter of an hour, shortly after all the little yellow 



