Wars and Slavery in the Animal Kingdom. 86 



tribes of the same species. Not inordinate greed in 

 the individuals nor imperialistic tendencies in the tribe, 

 but higher, natural laws are the mainsprings of these 

 "civil wars" among ants. The poet indeed, may 

 exclaim: "There is room on earth for all" (Schiller) ; 

 but even in the life of ants this beautiful saying is 

 often correct only in theory. 



Many more accounts of wars and battles among 

 ants could be mentioned ; but we cannot enter upon 

 them here, since our principal purpose is to call atten- 

 tion to a few points of comparison between the "intel- 

 ligence" of ants and that of higher animals and of 

 man. It remains only to be stated that the wars of 

 ants sometimes end in an "alliance," that is to say in 

 a peaceful union of the combatant tribes into one con- 

 stitutional body. These alliances are usually formed 

 between Formicas of the same or different species, 

 but are most frequent between different colonies of 

 san guineas. From Forel's "Four mis de la Suisse" 

 and from my own observations (see Die zusammen- 

 gesetzten Nester p. 146-157) many instances might be 

 selected. The chief conditions for such alliances 

 between hostile ant colonies are, that the two oppo- 

 nents be closely allied in species, that they be almost 

 equally populous, and lastly that they be forced to 

 live in close proximity and are thus unable to avoid 

 each other. Under such circumstances their original 

 skirmishes give way to mutual toleration and finally 

 to friendly intercourse. A superficial observer, of 

 such occurrences, might be led to believe that intelli- 

 gent reflection had caused the animals to overcome 

 their instinctive aversion. He might conclude that 



