84 Chapter L 



other bisons generally take an inquisitive sniff at the 

 corpse, but they make no assault on the foe for the 

 sake of a wounded or dead companion. Wolves are 

 far more unceremonious. Instead of devising plans 

 for revenge, they devour their dead or wounded 

 "brother." Ants, when engaged in common defense, 

 aim at defending the individual of the colony just as 

 little as do the higher animals. An assailed ant is 

 never defended by her companions for her own sake. 

 They rush upon the foe, only because they see in him 

 a common danger, and because their warlike spirit has 

 been aroused. This was noticed by Forel and Lub- 

 bock, and I can only confirm it. Therefore, neither 

 higher animals, nor ants, when either at work or in 

 battle, manifest anything like individual assistance in 

 the human sense of the word. 1 



"All animals living in a body, which defend them- 

 selves or attack their enemies in concert, must indeed 

 be in some degree faithful to one another ; and those 

 that follow a leader must be in some degree obedient. 

 When the baboons in Abyssinia plunder a garden, they 

 silently follow their leader ; and if an imprudent young 

 animal makes a noise, he receives a slap from the 

 others to teach him silence and obedience." 



Examples perfectly similar to the one just men- 



1 ) The pretended instances of individual assistance in the legionary 

 ant Eciton hamatum recorded by Belt (The Naturalist in Nicaragua, 

 2d ed., 1888, p. 26), are easily explained by the fact that these migrat- 

 ing ants tried to take along their straggling companions, as is often 

 the case in migrations of European Formica species. Therefore, there 

 is no reason why we should credit the Ecitons with a higher "sympathy 

 for their companions" than other ants, as Romanes does ("Animal 

 Intelligence," 6th ed., p. 48). This case is no proof of sympathy, but 

 merely a manifestation of the instinct of sociableness. 



