FORMICA POLYERO US. 81 



For the knowledge of the existence of slavery 

 among ants we are indebted to Huber, 1 and I cannot 

 -t quoting the passage in which he records his 

 discovery: 'On June 17, 1804,' he says, * while walk- 

 ing in the environs of Geneva, between four and five 

 in the evening, I observed close at my feet, traversing 

 the road, a legion of Rufescent ants. 



' They moved in a body with considerable rapidity, 

 and occupied a space of from eight to ten inches in 

 length, by three or four in breadth. In a few minutes 

 they quitted the road, passed a thick hedge, and entered 

 a pasture ground, where I followed them. They 

 wound along the grass without straggling, and their 

 column remained unbroken, notwithstanding the ob- 

 tacles they had to surmount. At length they ap- 

 proached a nest, inhabited by dark ash-coloured ants, 

 the dome of which rose above the grass, at a distance 

 of twenty feet from the hedge. Some of its inhabitants 

 were guarding the entrance ; but, on the discovery of 

 an approaching army, darted forth upon the advanced 

 guard. The alarm spread at the same moment in the 

 interior, and their companions came forth in numbers 

 from their underground residence. The Rufescent ants, 

 the bulk of whose army lay only at the distance of two 

 paces, quickened their march to arrive at the foot of 

 the ant-hill ; the whole battalion, in an instant, fell 

 upon and overthrew the ash-coloured ants, who, after 

 a short but obstinate conflict, retired to the bottom of 



i The Natural IRttory of Ani*, by V. P. Huber, p. 249. 

 O 



