THE ANIMAL KINGDOM. 167 



interests of their republic, slave-razzias executed by main 

 force. These microscopic filibusters do not go into the mar- 

 kets to sell their captives by auction, but, like effeminate 

 sybarites, keep them in order to impose all the household 

 work upon them. 



At the head of these daring slave-makers we must put 

 the red ant, or Amazon, the military expeditions of which 

 have been most carefully observed by the naturalists of our 

 epoch. They are so frequent that one may enjoy the sight 

 of them any fine day during the summer season. Huber 

 says that the excursions of these warrior tribes have only 

 one object : that of carrying off the ants, so to speak, in 

 their swaddling-clothes from the midst of a laborious people, 

 and converting them into helots who will work for them. 



When the Amazon ant takes the field in order to capture 

 slaves, and especially the miner ants, of which it generally 

 makes use, it goes about its work in a very orderly way. 

 The excursion always begins when night is drawing on. 

 When they have issued from their abode, the Amazons 

 array themselves in serried columns, and their army takes 

 its way to the ants' nest which they are about to spoliate. 

 In vain do the warriors seek to bar the entrance ; in spite 

 of all such efforts the others penetrate into the very heart 

 of the place, and pry into all the compartments in order to 

 choose their victims, the larvae and nymphs. The workers 

 which oppose those raids are simply thrown down ; they 

 are not made prisoners, because they would adapt them- 

 selves with difficulty to the yoke ; the assailants want only 

 young individuals, which they can mould to their will. 

 When the place is completely sacked, each conqueror takes 



