ROBBERS' CAVES 



might have carried out with precision an unvarying geo- 

 metrical plan, constructing walls of equal length and 

 breadth, and vaulted ceilings curved always in the same 

 manner, thus following blindly an impulse to build ; then we 

 should have been but moderately surprised at their industry. 

 But to form these irregular domes composed of so many 

 stories ; to distribute the apartments they contain in a con- 

 venient yet varied manner ; to take advantage of the weather 

 most favourable to their labours , to vary them (above all) 

 according to circumstances and to profit by the happy acci- 

 dents of the building site ; to form a judgment of the 

 advantage of such and such operations to do all these 

 things, must they not be endowed with faculties very near to 

 intelligence, and enabled by Nature to be not mere auto- 

 matons but creatures capable of perceiving the intention of 

 the work which it is their business in life to carry on ? " 



As a rule each species of ant lives by itself ; but there are 

 a few interesting cases in which ants of a smaller species are 

 found in the nests of their larger brethren, where they make 

 themselves thoroughly at home. Sometimes they live to- 

 gether on friendly terms, but not always so. The tiny ants 

 called Solanopsis, for instance, hollow out tunnels in the 

 walls of dwellings constructed by larger species and there lead 

 the lives of robbers, making raids on the home of their hosts 

 and carrying off booty into their caves, which are so narrow 

 that the victims cannot pursue the little brigands. 



