OF THE INTELLIGENCE AND OF INSTINCT. 171 



these galleries with columns wherever they may be required. 

 Should any accident happen by the falling of these beams, 

 the working ants hasten to repair the damage, to drag their 

 comrades from under the ruins, and to place them in a secure 

 quarter. The males and females take no part in these labours. 

 The first remain but a short time in the hillock, and perish 

 shortly after leaving. The females, which have left with the 

 males, after losing their wings, are brought back to the ant- 

 hillock by the working ants, placed in retired cells, where 

 they remain prisoners, being all the time carefully fed and 

 attended to by the labourers. So soon as they have laid an 

 egg, it is laid hold of, and removed to a separate apartment or 

 cell, each to its own ; the egg which is to give origin to a 

 female to its own cell, and that which in time will produce a 

 labourer, to its particular dwelling-place. The larvae are 

 attended and fed with the greatest care with their appropriate 

 food, and carried out in fine weather to bask in the sun. 

 Whilst so exposed they are defended from their enemies, and 

 carried back in the evening to their cells, which are kept in 

 the very best order. Ants lay in no stock of provisions, but 

 seek day by day what they require. Whilst some are occu- 

 pied with the care of the buildings, others proceed in quest of 

 food. They attack the pucerons, which on being pressed by 

 the feet of the ant, give out a drop of sweet liquid, which the 

 ant carries off. But some are not content with this, but carry 

 with them the insect (puceron) to the hillock, and retain them 

 there, as farmers do milch-cows. Two neighbouring or rival 

 hillocks have been seen to fight for the possession of these 

 pucerons, and the conquerors have been seen to carry off their 

 prisoners with the same care that they bestow on their own 

 larvae. Finally, that which is most singular in the history of the 

 ant, is still to be told. These industrious labourers seem occa- 

 sionally to get tired of their labours, as if they wished to enjoy 

 a little repose. In this case they make war on feebler species, 

 to procure the larvae and the nymphs, transport them to their 

 hillock, and charge the slaves they have thus procured with 

 all the labours of the community. 



334. The instinct of society is in some animals united 

 to another natural tendency, less striking, but perhaps of 

 more importance to man; we allude to the disposition to 

 obedience in a whole flock to obey a chief, and which seems 

 connected with the instinct of imitation. This instinct is 

 remarkable in the horse and in apes. 



