28 Chapter I. 



recovered by the next day, whilst without nursing she 

 would probably have perished, as is generally the case 

 with ants paralyzed by poison. 



If, therefore, on account of this "nursing," Lub- 

 bock and Romanes ascribe to ants a certain degree of 

 "care and tenderness" lavished on their sick and 

 wounded companions, they are right in so far as those 

 actions are due to instinctive impulses, and not to the 

 conscious affections of rational beings. For comparing 

 the associations of ants with those of higher animals 

 it may, at any rate, be of particular interest to notice, 

 that such acts occur also among ants, notwithstanding 

 their highly choleric temperament. 



"Yet, social animals also render more important 

 services to one another; thus wolves and some other 

 beasts of prey hunt in packs and aid one another in 

 attacking their victims. The Hamadryas baboons turn 

 over stones to find insects, etc., and when they come 

 to a large one, as many as can stand round, turn it 

 over together and share the booty. Social animals 

 mutually defend each other." This quotation from 

 Darwin's "Descent of Man" cannot justify Ziegler 

 any more than his former arguments in concluding, 

 that the community life of wild cattle, baboons and 

 other mammals is more closely related to the social 

 organisms of man, than that of ants. On the contrary, 

 the manifestations of social life recorded above occur 

 with ants even in far greater perfection. 



Ants, too, hunt in company, especially the so-called 

 sanguine slavemakers (F. sanguinea and rubicunda), 

 the red Amazon ants (Polyergns rufescens, lucidus 

 and breviceps), and all the species belonging to the 



