66 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



they be actuated by sympathetic and affectionate emotions, it is evident 

 that the constant watchfulness and attention which the w^eak would 

 demand, would necessarily retard the rate of their movement, and doubt- 

 less lead to the destruction of the entire flock. Here it is plain to the 

 most obtuse intellect that instinct or reason, the latter, as I conceive it to 

 be, operates for individual and family good. 



Granting that instinct or reason does sometimes act for individual and 

 family preservation, in the manner described, the writer does not feel at 

 liberty to admit that in every case that may arise in which the weak and 

 disabled are sacrificed, that it is done for the material benefit of the 

 physically able and robust. How the destruction of the weak and newly 

 developed ant can result in good to the colony, it is difficult to conceive 

 in view of the fact that not the slightest effort to escape the danger by 

 continued flight is undertaken, the sole object being to hide the immature 

 away from impending danger, either in the natural galleries or underneath 

 adjoining objects. A vigilant and powerful enemy, under these circum- 

 stances, would have very little difficulty in carrying out the very spirit and 

 letter of his programme. 



There seems to be one of two theories for the writer's selection 

 wherewith to account for in anything like a satisfactory manner, this 

 strange and abnormal habit upon the part of an insect which has been- 

 proverbially distinguished for its kind and affectionate disposition towards- 

 the tender beings committed to its trust — either to attribute it to an utter 

 unwillingness and repugnance to witness its proteges made the servants of 

 a hostile race, or to the survival and exhibition of a habit which was in 

 vogue far back in the buried ages of the past, when this species of 

 Formica was migratory or of a roving disposition. 



That a feeling of utter repugnance sometimes takes possession of the 

 nature of some forms of animal existence, when the objects of their 

 solicitude and care are or are about to be reduced to a state of confine- 

 ment, and impels them to a course of action which bears the semblance 

 of inhumanity, will be patent to all from what follows. 



In the summer of 1873 ^ friend of the writer's having procured a pair 

 of the young of Tunhis iiiigratorius^ Tinn., placed them in a cage and 

 hung the latter on a tree, close to his dwelling, where the parent birds 

 could still administer to their temporal well-being. All went well for 

 several days, and the parents, who had busied themselves in the intervals 

 of feeding in their attempts to relieve their offspring, finding all their 



