182 THE UNIVERSE. 



defend its home, its family, and its liberty. This is so con- 

 stantly the case, that Mr. Smith, to his great surprise, found 

 a little tribe of this valiant species under a stone close to a 

 nest of slave-makers. They kncAv how to make themselves 

 respected there, and even frightened the others by their 

 warlike attitude. 



The slave-making tribes are not occupied solely with 

 the capture of helots ; they frequently spread out over 

 plants in order to carry off the Aphides. These are their 

 cattle, their milch-cows, their goats; people would never 

 have thought that ants were a pastoral race. They are 

 extremely fond of a sweet liquor which distils from two 

 little teats which the Aphis carries at the extremity of its 

 back. We often find them scattered over the surface of 

 vegetables sucking this fluid from individuals by turns as 

 they encoimter them. At other times, accompanied by their 

 slaves, they carry off" the Hemiptera, and imprison them 

 in their dwelling, in order to milk them at leisure, and 

 there they are nourished exactly like stalled animals. 



Huber discovered that the ants are so greedy after this 

 sweet liquor, that to procure it more conveniently they 

 make covered ways which lead from their nests to the 

 plants inhabited by these miniature cows. Sometimes they 

 carry their foresight even to a more incredible extent. In 

 order to reap a richer harvest from the Aphides, they leave 

 them on the plants which they habitually feed upon, and 

 with finely-tempered earth build there species of little 

 stables in which they imprison them. The naturalist we 

 have just quoted discovered several of these surprising 

 constructions; the fact is therefore beyond doubt. 



Under certain circumstances the ants fight battles 

 which seem to have no other ground than antipathy be- 

 tween species or tribes. 



