THE PEKFECT SOCIALISM 83 



slavery. When the Amazons attacked the miner nests 

 they not only approached in solid column, but retreated 

 in solid column, being thus enabled to meet their assail- 

 ants to better advantage and showing themselves pos- 

 sessed of strategic powers of no mean sort. 



The reasons for war among social insects, so far as 

 we may observe, are based upon a sense of ownership 

 of property; i.e. robbery of stored food, taking of 

 slaves, and infringement of territorial rights. The 

 wars may exist between different colonies of the same 

 species or between different species. Among ants the 

 different species vary greatly as to bravery and skill in 

 warfare. The battles are fought by hand-to-hand con- 

 flict, and as the pre-gunpowder battles in our own 

 history were most deadly, so are these ant battles, which 

 only stop when there are no more soldiers left to fight. 

 The weapons of the ant warrior are always strong jaws 

 and in some species a venomous sting ; our common 

 species have the power of forcibly ejecting on their foes 

 the very irritating formic acid, a sort of emmet vitriol. 



The mast skilled fighters among the species of ants 

 march to battle in a solid column ; when once there the 

 m^lee resolves itself into a series of duels. Two 

 enemies, approaching each other, rear on their hind legs, 

 throw acid on each other, and then close in deadly 

 combat, each trying to cut the other in twain. Often 



