SLAVE-MAKING ANTS. 29 



But they do not seem to manifest so much 

 reasou iu taking an earth-worm to the nest. 

 Several red ants are coming on a gravel- 

 walk with a worm about three inches in 

 length ; they move along the walk very well 

 indeed, all working in concert ; but soon 

 they reach the border of dwarf iris, and are 

 brought to a stand-still by making a loop 

 of the worm round a stem of iris, about the 

 same number of ants pulling at each end, 

 neither party knowing enough to let one 

 end drop. They try to raise it over the 

 plant, which is about six inches high ; when 

 they get nearly to the top, something always 

 happens to bring it down to the ground. 

 This is repeated full twenty times ; at last 

 the strongest party are at one end, and now 

 they soon pull it round the iris, and quickly 

 disappear with it in the nest. 



But the most remarkable feat of this kind 

 was performed by another colony of ants 

 F. schanfussii a trifle longer but more slen- 

 der than F. sanguinea. It has a black head 

 and abdomen and a russet-brown thorax, 

 and seems to be the most intelligent species 

 which I have observed. This species also 

 has its nest in a border of dwarf iris, about 

 fifty yards from the slave -owners. Some 

 five feet from the nest I notice a number of 



