460 HOMES WITHOUT HANDS. 



themselves the labours of the nest, just as they would hare 

 done in their own home. The Amazon Ant seems to be utterly 

 incapable of work ; and in one notable instance, when a number 

 of them were confined in a glass-case, together with some pupae, 

 they were not only unable to rear the young, but could not even 

 feed themselves, so that the greater number died from hunger. 

 By way of experiment, a single specimen of the slave Ant 

 {Formica fiisca) was introduced into the case, when the state 

 of aifairs was at once altered. The tiny creature undertook 

 the whole care of the family, fed the still living Amazon Ants, 

 and took charge of the pupae until they were developed into 

 perfect insects. 



Some writers have enlarged upon the hard lot of the slave 

 Ants, imagining their servitude to be as distasteful to them as it 

 is sometimes made to human slaves. Mr. Westwood, however, 

 points out very clearly that any compassion bestowed upon them 

 is wasted, and that the lot of the " helots " — if they may be so 

 called — is precisely that for which they were made. The labours 

 which the little creatures ixndertake are not arbitrarily forced 

 upon them by the dread of punishment, but are urged upon 

 them by the instincts implanted within them. They would have 

 worked in precisely the same manner and with exactly the same 

 assiduity, in their own nests as in that of their captors, and 

 the labours are undertaken as willingly in the one case as in 

 the other. 



Tliey find themselves perfectly at home, and are in every 

 respect on a par with their so-called masters. . In point of fact, 

 however, the real masters in the nest are the slaves, for upon 

 them the Amazons are dependent from their earliest days to the 

 end of their life, and without them the entire community would 

 perish. The slaves have no other home but that to which they 

 have been brought, and are no more to be pitied than are dogs, 

 cattle, and other domestic animals that never have freedom. 

 Indeed, none but solitary animals can be free even in the wild 

 state, for they are held in absolute servitude by the leaders 

 of the herds, and, if they dare to disobey, arc summarily 

 punished. 



As the slaves are always neuters, it is necessary that fresh 

 importations should be made as fast as the demand for workers 

 exceeds the supply ; and it is really a wonderful thing that the 



