RELATIONS AND SURROUNDINGS. 135 



150. Social and Communal Life. Colonies are purely 

 involuntary associations. Very often animals, not bound 

 together, come into voluntary association. This may 

 be temporary or fairly permanent. This social quality 

 is seen in its simplest form as animals flock together to 

 feed, merely because of abundance of the food preferred 

 by the species. Similar to this are the shoals of fish that 

 go to a common spawning ground. A step more intimate 

 is the banding together of predaceous animals, as wolves 

 or vultures, or pelicans, for mutual help in finding or 

 taking the prey. Corresponding to this, on the part 

 of the victims, we find the herding of bison, of deer and 

 their kind for protection, whether by fighting together 

 or by stationing sentinels who give notice to the feeding 

 herd of the approach of danger. 



A step more intimate still is the permanent union of 

 thousands of individuals in the social life of such insects 

 as ants and bees. This is usually associated with the 

 instinct of home building and food storing, and thus a 

 high degree of division of labor among the individuals 

 of the colony becomes possible. In such cases the in- 

 dividual's life comes to be bound up in the success of the 

 colony. Such forms usually give great care to their 

 young, and develop a high order of social instinct and 

 behavior. The principal social forms are the ants, of 

 which there are more than two thousand species; some 

 of the bees and wasps; the termites or "white ants"; 

 beavers; some monkeys, and man. 



151. Practical Exercises. Make a report on the social life of the 

 honey bee, including the following points: the home in natural 

 conditions; the kinds of individuals in the hive, their origin, and 

 their special work in the community ; their food and its preparation ; 

 mode of caring for the young; swarming and its significance. Make 

 a similar report concerning some species of ant. Give an account 



