EDWARD BURGESS. 63 



and protect their aphides with great care. They not 

 only place them on the leaf stalks of plants, but actually 

 plant colonies of them in trees. A gentleman, living in 

 Upper Silesia, noticed that of two weeping ashes, which 

 he set out on his place, one grew vigorously while the 

 other seemed stunted in its growth. This continued for 

 several years, when he carefully examined the backward 

 tree and found it infested with aphides. To remove 

 them, in March, he washed every bough and limb in the 

 moat thorough manner. As a result the tree broke out 

 into full leave and sent out strong vigorous shoots. 

 This continued until about the beginning of June, when 

 one morning he noticed a number of ants continually 

 running up and down the tree. He watched them close- 

 ly and saw that they were carrying aphides up the 

 tree, and on a further examination he found that large 

 numbers had been planted on the upper leaves — in fact 

 that the ants had established a regular colony there. 



One of the most extraordinary habits of ants is the 

 practice of making slaves. This scarcely seems credible, 

 but the truth of it is established upon the clearest testi- 

 mony. There are two principal varieties of slave-making 

 ants — the P. rufescens and the F. sanguinea. Their cap- 

 tives are chiefly made among the F. fusca, a black ant, 

 and inferior in strength to the other. The full grown 

 ants are not carried off into captivity, only the pupae, 

 which are taken home and cared for until hatched, when 

 they become the milling slaves of their captors, manifest- 

 ing no desire to leave the nest and fighting in its defense 

 with as much ardor as their masters. 



With the F. sanguinea the slaves perform all the house- 

 hold work, which finds them fall employment, as they 

 have rather an elaborate system of housekeeping, and 

 seldom leave the nest. When the ants migrate to 

 another spot, which they often do, the slaves are carried 

 in the mouths of the others, as a cat carries her kittens, 



o 



