258 SPECIAL INSTINCTS. 



their nest. This species is sometimes, though rarely, 

 made into slaves, as has been described by Mr. Smith. 

 Although so small a species, it is very courageous, and I 

 have seen it ferociously attack other ants. In one instance 

 I found to my surprise an independent community of F. 

 flava under a stone beneath a nest of the slave-making F. 

 sauguinea; and when I had accidentally disturbed both 

 nests, the little ants attacked their big neighbors with sur- 

 prising courage. JSTow I was curious to ascertain whether 

 F. sanguinea could distinguish the pupae of F. fusca, 

 wliich they habitually make into slaves, from those of the 

 little and furious F. flava, which they rarely capture, and it 

 was evident that they did at once distinguish them; for we 

 have seen that they eagerly and instantly seized the pups 

 of F. fusca, wiiereas they were much terrified when they 

 came across the pupse, or even the earth from the nest, of 

 F. flava, and quickly ran away; but in about a quarter of 

 an hour, shortly after all the little yellow ants had crawled 

 away, they took heart and carried off the pupae. 



One evening 1 visited another community of F. san- 

 guinea, and found a number of these ants returning home 

 and entering their nests, carrying the dead bodies of F. 

 fusca (showing that it was not a migration) and numerous 

 pupae. I traced a long file of ants burdened with booty, 

 for about forty yards back, to a very thick clump of heath, 

 whence I saw the last individual of F. sanguinea emerge, 

 carrying a pupa; but I was not able to find the desolated 

 nest in the thick heath. The nest, however, must have 

 been close at hand, for two or three individuals of F. fusca 

 were rushing about in the greatest agitation, and one was 

 perched motionless with its own pupa in its mouth on the 

 top of a spray of heath, an image of despair over its ravaged 

 home. 



Such are the facts, though they did not need confirma- 

 tion by me, in regard to the wonderful instinct of making 

 slaves. Let it be observed what a contrast the instinctive 

 habits of F. sanguinea present with those of the conti- 

 nental F. rufescens. The latter does not build its own 

 nest, does not determine its own migrations, does not col- 

 lect food for itself or its young, and cannot even feed 

 itself:^ it is absolutely dependent on its numerous slaves. 

 Formica sanguinea, on the other hand, possesaea much 



