PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITIOX. 



THE great interest which has been aroused by the publi- 

 cation of the improved edition of this work makes it 

 possible to issue this third edition, despite the comparatively 

 short time that has elapsed and the unfavorable nature of 

 the times for literary enterprises. The book has again been 

 most carefully revised, and has been enriched and rendered 

 more complete by many new additional facts taken from the 

 researches and communications of Lubbock, McCook, 

 Graber, Espinas, Taschenberg, Miiller, Dzierzon, and 

 others. Especially worthy of thanks are the researches 

 carried on in Philadelphia by the Rev. H. C. McCook, on the 

 habits of ants and spiders ; these, like the communications 

 of the above named investigators, confirm and complete in 

 almost every particular the facts already published ; this is 

 notably the case with the results given in the admirable 

 work of Dr. A. Forel on the ants of Switzerland. "We 

 cannot deny ourselves the pleasure of here quoting the ex- 

 cellent remarks of M. A. Espinas, the author of the book 

 on " Animal Societies " (translated into German by Vieweg, 

 1879), although we do not thereby wish to give the idea 

 that our own volume owes its existence to any motives save 

 to those of simple love of truth and of popular instruction or 

 instructive amusement. M. Espinas says : " To elevate 

 animal societies is at the same time to elevate those of men, 



