342 INSECT MISCELLANIES. 



ritory, and when we forced one to encroach in this 

 way, it always scampered off with the utmost trepi- 

 dation, as if well aware, without consulting Vattel or 

 Puffendorf, that it had infringed an international law.* 

 It is of importance, as will presently appear, to state 

 that these three colonies were all quite distinct, and 

 none subjected to another in the relation of masters 

 and slaves, as, strange to tell, sometimes occurs in ant 

 communities. The details on this curious subject are 

 well worthy our attention. 



ANT EXPEDITIONS TO CAPTURE SLAVES. 



The following history of the mode in which com- 

 munities of ants obtain labourers is altogether so 

 extraordinary, that, did the evidence rest upon the 

 testimony alone of one observer, we might be dis- 

 posed to believe that it had originated in some im- 

 perfect observation, where the fancy had influenced 

 the judgment of the observer. But when the testi- 

 mony of the younger Huber is confirmed by such 

 men as Professor Jurine and M. Latreille, we have 

 no room left for scepticism. From our own expe- 

 rience, indeed, we can well believe Huber when 

 he says, ^ the more the wonders of nature have 

 attractions for me, the less do I feel inclined to alter 

 them by a mixture of the reveries of imagination.' 

 We may premise that the ant named by him the 

 Legionary, or Amazon {F. riifcscens), is a large 

 iron-brown coloured species, not hitherto found in 

 Britain. 



' On the seventeenth of June, 1804,' says Huber, 

 ^ whilst w^rilking in the environs of Geneva, between 

 four and five in the evening, I observed, close at my 

 feet, traversing the road, a column of legionary ants. 

 They moved with considerable rapidity, and occupied 

 a space of from eight to ten inches in length, by three 



* J. R. 



