18 SECRETS OF ANIMAL LIFE 
yet they have not so far become in any marked 
way degenerate. 
The European species, Polyergus rufescens, was 
first recognized as a slave-owner by the Swiss 
entomologist Pierre Huber (in 1810); his fine ob- 
servations were extended by his fellow-countryman 
Auguste Forel, also working on the shores of the 
Lake of Geneva; and now Professor Emery has 
added to the story. The American Amazons 
have been best studied by Professor W. M. 
Wheeler.1. The Amazon workers and queens have 
jaws well-suited for killing but ill-suited for burrow- 
ing, or obtaining food, or tending the young. They 
cannot dig, but to beg and to steal they are not 
ashamed. They are militarist aristocrats who will 
not soil their hands with toil. As Professor Wheeler 
puts it: ‘‘ While in the home nest they sit about in 
stolid idleness or pass the long hours begging the 
slaves for food or cleaning themselves and burnish- 
ing their ruddy armor, but when outside the nest 
on one of their predatory expeditions they display 
a dazzling courage and capacity for concerted action 
compared with which the raids of the ‘ sanguinary 
ants’ resemble the clumsy efforts of a lot of un- 
trained militia.” But they have paid for their 
combative accomplishments dearly, for they cannot 
live without their auxiliaries or hosts or slaves. 
We use all these words because no one of them 
alone will serve to denote the strange association. 
*See his fascinating and reliable book—Ants (Columbia 
University Series). 
