7 
which ants are particularly partial, and then when’ they are intent 
on sensual énjoyment he surreptitiously puts a small distinctive dab 
of paint ‘on’ their backs. We have heard a ‘great deal of’ slave 
making and marauding ants, and that they do nefariously and 
violently carry off, appropriate, and annex the offspring, i.e, the 
larve of their neighbours, there can be no doubt, but the careful 
observations of Sir John Lubbock give quite a different aspect and 
character to acts which might be otherwise thought derogatory to 
the character of an honourable ant. We all know that the whole 
end and aim of an ant’s life is, apparently, to carry something about 
in its mouth ; it may be something useful, or it may not, but some- 
thing it must be; it is apparently the same instinct which compels 
the female of our own species even to have something in her hand, 
it may be a piece of work, or a baby, or it may be a fan, a parasol, 
or eyen, in extreme cases, a walking stick. Well, it is the same 
vith what I may call, without disrespect, the spinster ant; thus, if 
in ‘their wanderings they come across the nest of other ants and find 
#@ woniber of larvae Ivine aveund, they immediately seize on them and 
carty thein off) and. resist anv attempt to recapture theni to’ the 
death, as'4 diseracetul interference with the © rights of the subject.” 
Having got their prizes safely om, they rear them with the greatest 
care and tenderness, feed and air them as though they were their 
very own. It is true that when their captives attain’ to “ant’s 
estate*” they work them pretty hard, but then it is not in ant’s (or 
pire nature to give anything for nothing. If an ant cannot find 
y larve knocking about, it will pick up small seeds, bits of stick, 
the hind leg’ of a beetle, or any little treasure of that kind, though 
no doubt it finds the soft succulent body of a tender young larve 
pléasanter to’ its jaws. It is in this way they carry off the eggs of' 
e saphis, or green’ fly, which infests greenhouses, and is the horror 
f'every gardener. These eggs they carefully tend and rear till they 
become juvenile aphids, which they keep for milking purposes. 
Ants dé extremely fond of sweets of all kinds, and it happens that 
aphids secrete''a clear sweet honey-like fluid which distils from 
vO little prominences on ' their bodies: When the ant wishes for a 
little refreshment, it ‘strikes these prominences gently with its 
antenne, first on one side and then on the other, and the sweet 
fluid exudes im the appreciative jaws of the master; the aphids’ seem 
to submit quite willingly and quietly to the’ process. They occa- 
sionally make use of their gentle captives for less agreeable purposes. 
err Volkbaum, for example, observed some ants on a’ maple tree 
which ‘had been 'tarred round the bottom ;' wishing to cross over the 
tarty position,’ they brought a number of aphids down from the 
tree, and’ ‘stuck their bodies ruthlessly, in ‘the tar, so as to form a 
causeway over whith’ they might pass’ without! soiling’ their dainty 
