THE AMAZON ANT. 75 
from hunger. By way of experiment, a single specimen 
of the slave Ant (Formica fusca) was introduced into 
the case, when the state of affairs 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 pup 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 undertake 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. 
They 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 themthe 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 soli- 
tary 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, are summarily punished. 
As the slaves are always neuters, it is necessary that 
