416 ANIMAL SOCIETIES. 



recognise their parents, their spouses, their young, long 

 after the business of the nest is over and consort-together 

 to renew their caresses and endearments. In this 

 manner the flock is formed ; it is based upon domestic 

 love. And soon experience teaches them the advan- 

 tages of union. They are the better able when in 

 flocks to obtain food, and to defend themselves against 

 their foes. They accordingly dwell together, and by 

 means of their social habits their intelligence is 

 quickened, their affections are enlarged. The mem- 

 bers of animal societies possess in a marvellous degree 

 the power of co-operation, the sentiment of fidelity to 

 the herd. By briefly describing what the lower 

 animals do, and what they feel, we shall show that 

 they possess in a dispersed and elementary condi- 

 tion all the materials of which human nature is com- 

 posed. 



In their communities there is sometimes a regular 

 form of government and a division into castes. They 

 have their monarch, their labourers, and soldiers, who 

 are sterile females like the Amazons of Dahomey. 

 They have slaves which they capture by means of 

 military expeditions, attacking the villages of their 

 victims and carrying off the prisoners in their mouths. 

 They afterwards make the slaves carry them. They 

 have domestic animals which they milk. They form 

 alliances with animals of a foreign species or nationality 

 and admit them into the community when it can be 

 profited thereby. They build houses or towns which 

 are ingeniously constructed, and which in proportion 

 to the size of the architects, are greater than the 

 Pyramids. They have club-houses or salons which 

 they decorate with flowers and bright shells. They 

 march in regular order ; when they feed they post 



