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opposite to that on which the enemy approached. The young females also fled to the same 

 quarter. The sanguine ants at length rush upon the negroes, and attacking them on all 

 sides, after a stout resistance the latter, renouncing all defence, endeavour to make off to 

 a distance with the pupaB they have heaped up. The host of assailants pursues, and strives 

 to force from them these objects of their care. Many also enter the formicary, and begin 

 to carry off the young brood that are left in it. A continued chain of ants engaged in 

 this employment extends from nest to nest, and the day and part of the night pass before 

 all is finished. A garrison being left in the captured city, on the following morning the 

 business of transporting the brood is renewed. It often happens (for this species of 

 ant loves to change its habitation) that the conquerors emigrate with all their family to 

 the acquisition which their valour has gained. All the incursions of F. sanguinea take 

 place in the space of a month, and they only make five or six in the year. They will 

 sometimes travel one hundred and fifty paces to attack a negro colony." 



Let us now turn to an account of the proceedings of slave-makers nearer home. Miss 

 Mary Treat has given a most interesting narrative of her observations of the doings of the 

 American red ant ( F. sanguinea ) at her home in New J ersey ; the account was published 

 in Harper's New Monthly Magazine, from which we extract the following description. It 

 is the result, she says, of several weeks' close observation, to the exclusion of all other 

 work, commencing the 1st of July and extending into August. 



The nest of the red slave-makers was in a grove, and must have contained several 

 thousand working inhabitants. About fifty feet from it was a nest of black ants {F.fusca), 

 apparently fully as large and strong as that of the red ants. Externally the two nests 

 did not differ very much. The red ants raised a slight mound, while the blacks had simple 

 excavations about the roots of an oak tree. 



"On a sultry afternoon, the 1st day of July "—to quote Miss Treat's words— -"I was lazily 

 sauntering in the grove, when, on looking down, I found to my surprise, that I was in 

 the midst of a battle-field. A powerful army of red ants had invaded the dominions of 

 the black colony which for three years past I had had a kind of supervision over. I had 

 often brought plants covered with aphides-the immortal Linnaeus called these aphides the 

 ants' cows — and stuck the plants into the earth around their dwelling, and had given them 

 sugar, and had driven and carried toads from their nest which were devouring them. In 

 short, I had become very much interested in and quite attached to this colony, but I was 

 powerless to aid them now. I could only look on in wonder and astonishment. 



" A yard or more around the foot of the tree the battle was raging, and no place for 

 the sole of my foot without crushing the combatants. I found in every instance a red 

 ant pitted against a black ; sometimes two red ones against one black, in which case 

 the black was soon despatched. For three hours I watched the conflict ; all around me 

 the combatants locked in a close embrace, rolling and tumbling about, never separating 

 until one was killed, and often the dead victim had fastened with so firm a hold on his 

 adversary that it was with the utmost difficulty that he could free himself from his death- 

 grip. The sun went down, and the gathering darkness compelled me to leave my post of 

 observation ; but as long as I could see, the conflict was as fierce as ever. I now picked 

 up several of the warriors, but so intent were they in their terrible struggle that my hand- 

 ling did not divert them in the least. I carried several pairs into the house, placed them 

 under a large oval glass on a marble-topped table, and watched the conflict. 



" I found I had ten black and ten red warriors, not engaged in a general melee, but 

 each intent upon killing his own adversary. It was fully an hour before the first warrior 

 was killed — a red had at last despatched his black antagonist, and not satisfied with j, 

 killing him, he tears his legs from his body and severs his antennse. After convincing 

 himself that he is really dead, he looks around at the other warriors which are still clos ely 

 locked in their dreadful embrace, and now he hurries from one couple to another, as if to ( 

 see where his services are most needed. He finds a couple whose struggles are nearV 

 over — a black is fastened with a death grip to his adversary's foreleg. The red hero soon I 

 severs the head from the black soldier, and leaves it hanging to the leg of his dying com- 

 rade. He now goes to another couple who are still fiercely contending ; he seizes the 

 black, and now all three roll and tumble about together ; but the black is soon killed , 

 and, as in the other case, his mandibles are locked on his adversary's leg. But this time 



