PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 83 



prived of their children ; especially when you further 

 consider, that most probably some of their brood are 

 rescued from the general pillage ; or at any rate their 

 females are left uninjured, to restore the diminished 

 population of their colonies, and to supply them with 

 those objects of attention, the larvas, &c. so necessary 

 to that development of their instincts in which consists 

 their happiness. 



But to return to the point from which I digressed — 

 The negro and miner ants suffer no diminution of hap- 

 piness, and are exposed to no unusual hardships and 

 oppression in consequenceof being transplanted into a 

 foz'eign nest. Their life is passed in much the same 

 employments as would have occupied it in their native 

 residence. They build or repair the common dwelling; 

 they make excursions to collect food ; they attend upon 

 the females ; they feed them and the larvae ; and they 

 pay the necessary attention to the daily sunning of the 

 eggs, larvae, and pupae. Besides this, they have also to 

 feed their masters and to carry them about the nest. 

 This you will say is a serious addition to the ordinary 

 occupations of their own colonies : but when you con- 

 sider the greater division of labour in these mixed so- 

 cieties, Avhich sometimes unite both negroes and miners 

 in the same dwelling, so that three distinct races live 

 together, from their vast numbers so far exceeding 

 those of the native nest, you will not think this too 

 sei^ere employment for so industrious an animal. 



But you will here ask, perhaps — " Do the masters 



take no part in these domestic employments ? At least, 



surely, they direct their slaves, and see that they keep 



to their work?" — No such thing, I assure you — the 



c; 2 



