172 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters. 



up, and with a seeming air of satisfaction at their exploit, passed 

 their time in rubbing off their bodies, cleaning and polishing their 

 limbs and mandibles. This was an instance of the doings of slave- 

 making ants. 



In this case, there can be no reasonable doubt but that one of 

 the party which composed the expedition had made a discovery 

 of the colony that was to be raided. The ant returned to its com- 

 panions, reported its discovery, a party was organized, led by the 

 discoverer, the colony was robbed, a conflict ensued, and finally 

 the spoils were carried home. 



This whole performance looks very like what men have done 

 in all ages. But when done by men such actions are not ascribed 

 to instinct, but to mind. But let them be done by even one of 

 the higher animals, not to say an ant, and they are loosely at- 

 tributed to instinct. But why so, where the signs are essentially 

 the same ? 



But I have not done with the history of the singular doings of 

 ants, which seem to indicate the presence of mind. To do this 

 fully would require several lectures. I have watched ants on the 

 hunt for colonies of aphides or plant lice. I have watched them 

 after discovering such a colony. They station guards over them, 

 to dispute the entrance of any other ants, on their domain. They 

 carefully tend the aphides, as a shepherd would his flock. If one 

 of the clumsy creatures of their charge gets of? its plumb, and 

 is in danger of falling, a guardian ant takes and tenderly places 

 it in position. The ants step around, among and over the mem.- 

 bers of their flock with every sign of care. But why ? Let any 

 one see. They do not do that to feed on them, but they use them 

 in a sense as men use cows. An ant will stand astride of, or behind 

 the plant louse, and with its pointed feet will seize the little aphid 

 underneath the abdomen, and by a motion of combined pressure 

 and tickling, induces it to issue amethystine drops from its 

 back, from a little bag. The ant watches for this, and when it 

 appears, stoops and drinks it with apparent gusto, and then goes 

 his way. The only ants that have this privilege are those which 

 belong to the colony — they alone have the passport. 



Ants have armies, commanded, it seems, by officers who seem- 



