SIR JOHN LUBBOCK. 39 



ways, their possession of domestic animals, and ov< u 

 in some cases of slaves, it must be admitted that they 

 had a fair claim to rank next to man in the scale 

 intelligence. In this country we had thirty kinds ; but 

 ants became more numerous m species, as well as in 

 individuals, in warmer countries, and more than on i 

 thousand were known. No two species of ant ; 

 were identical in habits, and, on various accounts, 

 their mode of life was far from easy to unravel. 

 In the first place, most of their time was passed 

 underground. All the education of the young was 

 carried on in the dark. Again, ants were essentially 

 gregarious, and within the same species the indi- 

 viduals seemed to differ in character, while even th i ! 

 same individual woidd behave very differently under 

 different circumstances. The life of an ant fell into 

 four well-marked periods, — those of the egg, larva or 

 grub, the pupa or chrysalis, and the perfect insect. 

 Under ordinary circumstances an ants' nest, like a 

 bee-hive, contained three kinds of individuals — workers, 

 or imperfect females, which constituted the great 

 majority, males, and perfect females. There were, 

 however, often several queens in an ants' nest, while 

 there was never more than one in the hive. The 

 queens had wings, but after a single flight they tore 

 off their wings and did not again quit the nest. An:> 

 had their desires, their passions, even their caprices. 

 The young were absolutely helpless. Their communities 

 were sometimes so numerous that, perhaps, London and 

 Pekin were almost the only human cities that could 

 compare with them. They were organized oommunities, 



