156 ANTS AND ANT LIFE. 



few slaves in all. Males and fertile females of the slave 

 species (F. fused} are found only in their own proper com- 

 munities, and have never been observed in the nests of F. 

 sanguined. The slaves are black and not above half the size 

 of their red masters, so that the contrast in their appearance 

 is very great. When the nest is slightly disturbed, the 

 slaves occasionally come out, and like their masters are 

 much agitated and defend the nest : when the nest is much 

 disturbed and the larvae and pupa) are exposed, the slaves 

 work energetically with their masters in carrying them away 

 to a place of safety. Hence, it is clear, that the slaves feel 

 quite at home 



" One day I fortunately witnessed a migration of F. 

 sanguined from one nest to another, and it was a most 

 interesting spectacle to behold the masters carefully carry- 

 ing (instead of being carried by, as in the case of F. 

 nifescens) their slaves in their jaws. [Not always. L. B.] 

 Another day my attention was struck by about a score of 

 the slave makers haunting the same spot, and evidently not 

 in search of food; they approached and were vigorously 

 repulsed by an independent community of the slave species 

 (F. fused) ; sometimes as many as three of these ants cling- 

 ing to the legs of the slave-making F. sanguined. The latter 

 ruthlessly killed their small opponents, and carried their 

 dead bodies as food to their nest, twenty-nine yards distant; 

 but they were prevented from getting any pupa? to rear as 

 slaves. I then dug up a small parcel of the pupte of F.fusca 

 from another nest, and put them down on a bare spot near 

 the place of combat ; they were eagerly seized, and carried 

 off by the tyrants, who perhaps fancied that, after all, they 

 had been victorious in their late combat. 



" At the same time I laid on the same place a small parcel 

 of the pupas of another species, F. flava, with a few of these 

 little yellow ants still clinging to the fragments of the nest. 

 This species is sometimes, though rarely, made into slaves, 

 as has been described by Mr. Smith. Although so small a 

 species, it is very courageous, and I have seen it ferociously 

 attack other ante. In one instance I found to my surprise 

 an independent community of F. flava under a stone beneath 

 a nest of the slave-making F. sanguined; and when I had 

 accidentally disturbed both nests, the little ants attacked their 

 big neighbors with surprising courage. Now I was curious 



