Wars and Slavery in the Animal Kingdom, 63 



moment the whole surface of the stump is covered 

 with thousands of ants furiously hurrying to and fro. 

 But, if the colony is weak, the same kick, which at 

 other times calls forth an army, will have the con- 

 trary effect. The ants which just before were running 

 about the surface, disappear through the entrances of 

 the nest as if by magic, and deathlike quiet succeeds. 

 If in ants this appropriate estimation of the strength 

 of their own colony is characterized as instinctive, 

 and this is, no doubt, the only correct expression, 

 then, similar occurrences among higher animals should 

 also be credited to instinct and not to intelligence. 1 



Yet, the courage of individual ants in a colony is 

 dependent not only on the perception of the great 

 number and courage of their comrades. In populous 

 colonies also of warlike species such as F. sanguinea, 

 there will always appear considerable differences in 

 individual courage, as we have shown above. Some- 

 times even single, isolated individuals make head 

 against a numerous foe. Such an example of "hero- 

 ism" scarcely ever equaled by dogs, lions, and tigers, 

 was once witnessed by Rothney 2 in Bengal. A mid- 

 dle-sized worker of a large black ant species (Cam- 



J ) Forel (Un aperQU de Psychologic comparee [1896], p. 25) men- 

 tions an instance, where a very strong colony of Camponotus ligni- 

 perdus, when fighting with F, pratensis, showed a more warlike spirit 

 than is the custom with the ordinary colonies of that species. We fully 

 agree with Forel if he infers therefrom the existence of "plasticity" 

 in the psychic faculties in ants. Our own observations mentioned 

 above prove the very same. Yet, in considering this plasticity of the 

 sensitive powers of cognition and appetite to be essentially identical 

 with human intelligence, he iS entirely wrong, as we have shown in a 

 former publication, "Instinct and Intelligence in the Animal Kingdom." 



2 ) "Notes on Indian Ants," p. 349 (Transact. Entom. Soc. Lon- 

 don, 1889). 



