144 CIVIC BIOLOGY 



The slaves undertake the work of the new nest much as they 

 would that of their own. Can you find ant colonies with slaves ? 

 Warfare. Many comparisons have been made between ants 

 and man because of the diversity of their activities. Ants are 

 said to indulge in games and athletic sports and to carry on 

 war. The following observations are recorded that they may 

 incite some young Lubbock or McCook to find the cause and 

 purpose of these wars. 



On the morning of June 2(3, 1883, 1 observed numbers of large black 

 ants wandering excitedly over a back piazza of my house in Boxf ord, Mass- 

 achusetts. More careful observation showed a dozen of their dead bodies 

 scattered around, while two living insects were struggling in a desper- 

 ate conflict. In some places dissevered legs and antennae were thickly 

 strewn, while in retired nooks living ants were resting, either exhausted 

 or skulking. I gathered over twenty corpses from the piazza and the 

 ground. Some of these warriors, having mutually inflicted mortal 

 wounds, had never relaxed their iron embrace, but lay dead in pairs. 



The conflict was not yet ended, and I watched one of these Homeric 

 encounters. An ant had his antagonist's feeler in his jaws. The com- 

 batant, thus held, twisted and turned to get his own mandibles upon 

 feeler, leg, neck, or waist of his antagonist. He was, evidently, much 

 unnerved by the other's hold, for these antennae seem as sensitive as the 

 eyeball, and he was dragged about, resisting and struggling in every 

 way, but all in vain. Finally, the antenna came off near the base and 

 the two warriors parted. 



Single combats like this probably went on through the day, and a few 

 occurred the following night, for in the morning I found more dead 

 bodies. One wounded soldier died in my custody, and many, doubtless, 

 in cracks and nooks, but the level floor seemed to be the main battle- 

 field. Altogether I collected from the fight about seventy complete 

 bodies or dissevered heads, which I preserved in a red pill box the 

 rather gaudy tumulus of this Waterloo ! 



In the same place on the morning of July 7, following, I found traces 

 of another battle which was not yet finished. Again, July 19, there had 

 been a battle during the night on the bare floor of a chamber at the 

 opposite end of the house and upstairs. One morning in August, of the 

 same year, I found traces of a similar battle in the cellarway of a neigh- 

 boring house. W. P. ALCOTT, Bulletin, Essex Institute, 1897, p. 65 



