FORMICA—POLYERGUS., 81 
For the knowledge of the existence of slavery 
among ants we are indebted to Huber,! and I cannot 
resist quoting the passage in which he records his 
discovery :—‘ On June 17, 1804,’ he says, * while walk- 
ing in the environs of Geneva, between four and five 
in the evening, I observed close at my feet, traversing 
the road, a legion of Rufescent ants. 
‘They moved in a body with considerable rapidity 
and occupied a space of from eight to ten inches in 
length, by three or four in breadth. In a few minutes 
they quitted the road, passed a thick hedge, and entered 
a pasture ground, where I followed them. They 
wound along the grass without straggling, and their 
column remained unbroken, notwithstanding the ob- 
stacles they had to surmount. At length they ap- 
proached a nest, inhabited by dark ash-coloured ants, 
the dome of which rose above the grass, at a distance 
of twenty feet from the hedge. Some of its inhabitants 
were guarding the entrance; but, on the discovery of 
an approaching army, darted forth upon the advanced 
guard. The alarm spread at the same moment in the 
interior, and their companions came forth in numbers 
from their underground residence. The Rufestent ants, 
the bulk of whose army lay only at the distance of two 
paces, quickened their march to arrive at the foot of 
the ant-hill; the whole battalion, in an instant, fell 
upon and overthrew the ash-coloured ants, who, after 
-a short but obstinate conflict, retired to the bottom of 
1 The Natural History of Ants, by M. P. Huber, p. 249. 
