712 THE AMERICAN NATURALLIST. [Vor. XXXV. 
small troop of F. sanguinea (probably rubicunda) on a large 
formicary of F. subsericea. “ There were scarcely thirty F. san- 
guinea, and a third of these were recently hatched workers, 
still immature. The troop was evidently from an incipient 
colony. The subsericea had their nest about the roots of a 
great mullein (Verbascum). Their numbers were at least ten 
times as great as that of their assailants, and it may be 
admitted that each of them was fully as well armed and on the 
average larger and more robust than the sanguinea. Well, the 
mere arrival of the little troop of sanguinea sufficed to spread 
consternation through the nest of the subsericea, which betook 
themselves to flight with their larvae and pupæ, but permitted 
the sanguinea to snatch these away and to conquer their nest 
without even making a serious show of defending themselves. 
Not more than one or two small sanguinea were killed in the 
fray. This fact is of importance, for in this instance we can- 
not allege the redoubtable weapons, hard integument, or even 
the impetuosity of the analogous attacks of the little troops of 
Polyergus rufescens which I have described in my * Fourmis de 
la Suisse.” The bold and courageous tactics of the sanguinea 
were even less noticeable than in the European form of this 
species, which wages war on smaller and more feeble species 
than itself. I have never yet seen such complete and absurd 
cowardice as that of the American subsericea, a cowardice 
which brings clearly into prominence the instinctive adaptation 
to attack on the part of the enslaving, and to flight on the part 
of the enslaved species.”’ 
At Colebrook, Conn., during August, 1900, I had an oppor 
tunity to see a colony of rubicunda moving to a new nest. 
Each of the ants was carrying a motionless, curled-up F. sub- 
sericea in its jaws. The rather open phalanx of ants presented 
a very striking appearance as it moved from a shady hedge 
where the old nest was located, across a dusty road and dis- 
appeared in the undergrowth of a wood on the opposite side. 
