THE ANIMAL KINGDOM. 171 



they have been verified with the most scrupulous care, both 

 by the great historian of ants, and more recently in Eng- 

 land by Messrs. F. Smith and Darwin. 



All kinds of ants do not so easily adapt themselves to 

 slavery. There are some very small ones, such as the yel- 

 low ant, which set the Amazons at defiance, and although 

 much weaker frighten them by a show of boldness ; cour- 

 age supplies the want of strength. Hence the blood-red 

 ant, which is one of the most thorough-going slave-makers 

 we are acquainted with, never attempts to plunder the 

 dwelling of the yellow ant, which fights with fury to defend 

 its home, its family, and its liberty. This is so constantly 

 the case that Mr. Smith, to his great surprise, found a lit- 

 tle tribe of this valiant species under a stone close to a nest 

 of slave-makers. They knew how to make themselves re- 

 spected there, and even frightened the others by their war- 

 like attitude. 



The slave-making tribes are not occupied solely with the 

 capture of helots ; they frequently spread out over plants 

 in order to carry off the Aphides. These are their cattle, 

 their milch-cows, their goats ; people would never have 

 thought that ants were a pastoral race. They are extremely 

 fond of a sweet liquor which distils from two little teats 

 which the Aphis carries at the extremity of its back. We 

 often find them scattered over the surface of plants sucking 

 this fluid from individuals by turns as they encounter them. 

 At other times, accompanied by their slaves, they carry off 

 the Aphides, and imprison them in their dwelling, in order 

 to milk them at leisure, and there they are nourished ex- 

 actly like stalled animals. An ant-nest, says Huber, is 



