Care of the Young in the Animal Kingdom. 169 



involve us in endless and hopeless contradictions. 

 They are explainable only from the standpoint of a 

 higher, teleological consideration of nature, which 

 does not presume to replace the wisdom of the Creator 

 by the ''intelligence of animals." 



The phenomena in the nursing of ants mentioned 

 above can be ascertained only by close, scientific 

 observation. But some other features are known to 

 every amateur in the study of ants, and do not escape 

 even the most casual observer. The first thing that 

 strikes our attention is the great attachment displayed 

 by the workers for their charges. They carefully 

 guard them against every disturbance, and at the risk 

 of their own lives they exert all their strength in ward- 

 ing off hostile invaders. The whole colony is seized 

 with frenzy, if an attempt is made to rob them of 

 their larvae and pupae.^ Merely thrust your stick 

 into a hillock of wood-ants! At once there ensues a 

 tumultuous uproar and masses of workers rush forth 

 to rout the enemy. But if you happen upon a chamber 

 filled with pupae and attempt to take away the cocoons, 

 the fury of the ants reaches its climax. Like an army 

 of raging furies they fall upon the assailant, viciously 

 biting and ejecting their poison. Hundreds and thou- 

 sands are crushed by the enemy, but other hundreds 

 and thousands are eager to face the carnage. No 

 lioness, no she-monkey ever defends her young witli 

 the heroism displayed by ants. Workers will rather 



^) This is the case with species otherwise very peace-loving, e. g., 

 with the large American leaf-cutting ants of the genus Atta. On open- 

 ing a nest of Atta sexdens in Rio Frio, Forel even had an artery of his 

 little finger pierced by a large-headed worker. See Forel, "Zur Fauna 

 und Lebensweise der Ameisen im Columbischen Urwald" ("Mittheil. der 

 Schweiz. Entom. Gesellsch.," Vol. IX, 9th issue, p. 407). 



