iio Instinct and its Lessons 



fusca). The slaves, as Mr. Darwin tells us, "habitually 

 work with their masters in making the nest, and they 

 alone open and close the doors in the morning and 

 evening." They also search for Aphides. A continental 

 Ant (Formica rufescens], which likewise makes slaves, has 

 lost all power of any work except slave-making. The 

 males and females of this species do no worlT at all ; 

 the neuters, or workers, though most energetic and 

 courageous in capturing slaves, do nothing else. The 

 slaves have to make the cells, tend the larvae, feed their 

 masters, and, in case of migration, also to carry them. 

 The slave Ants are thus possessed of an instinct alto- 

 gether unselfish, one which does not in any way tend to 

 the good of their own kind, for it is most noteworthy 

 that the slaves are all neuters, which can do nothing to 

 hand down instinct of any sort : while the dusky race, 

 of which slaves are made, show their sense of the bles- 

 sings of slavery by fierce battles to avoid it, when a 

 party comes marauding. 



Creatures such as insects are in some respects the best 

 in which to study instinct, as in them we find it most 

 remote from reason. While such animals are obviously 

 incapable of framing a judgment, their operations yet 

 exhibit a minute accuracy which we do not meet else- 

 where. We find examples, however, of much the same 

 import, among brutes of higher development. The archi- 

 tectural work of the Bee may to some extent be matched 

 by that of the much-abused Mole. This underground 

 engineer has played a part in English history, and for his 

 share in bringing about the death of Dutch William 

 he used to be toasted by Jacobites as "the little gentle- 

 man in black velvet." This, however, is not his earth- 

 work's only claim to admiration. Though endowed with 

 eyes so imperfectly developed as to make it doubtful 

 whether he can really see, and though his whole life 

 is spent in laborious search for food, a fast of six hours 

 being said to be fatal, this animal exhibits in its engineer- 

 ing operations the most consummate skill. In the centre 

 of his estate, for each Mole claims a certain district 



