84 



masters have littered while carrying in their booty. As soon as the passages are cleared, 

 a large force is engaged in closing the entrance." Many more accounts of raids upon both 

 black and yellow ants are given by Miss Treat, but the above will suffice to prove that 

 slave making is a recognized "institution" among the red ants. The relative position of 

 the masters and slaves seems to vary, a good deal in the case of the species already re- 

 ferred to. The red ants(.F. sanguined) appear to bear a considerable share of the work of 

 the community, and not to be entirely dependent upon the offices of their slaves ; but 

 the russet ants ( F. rufescens ) seem to be altogether above doing any kind of work for 

 themselves, except when they are engaged in the military operations of attacking a nest 

 of blacks — consequently, the entire work of the colony in their case devolves upon their 

 slaves. Huber found by experiment that the russet ants would starve, if left to them- 

 selves, sooner than take the trouble to make use of food left conveniently within their 

 reach. He relates that he " shut up thirty of these ants in a glazed box, supplying them 

 with larva? and pupa? of their own kind, with the addition of several negro pupae, excluding 

 very carefully all their slaves, and placing some honey in a corner of their prison. In- 

 credible as it may seem, they made no attempt to feed themselves : and though at first 

 they paid some attention to their larva?, carrying them here and there, as if too great 

 a charge they soon laid them down again ; most of them died of hunger in less than two 

 days, and the few that remained alive appeared extremely weak and languid. At length, 

 commiserating their condition, he admitted a single negro ; and this little active creature 

 by itself re-established order, made a cell in the earth, collected the larva? and placed 

 them in it, assisted the pupa? that were ready to be developed, and preserved the life of 

 the neuter rufescents that still survived." 



It might be supposed that the lob of the enslaved ^ants was a very hard and cruel one, 

 and that their bondage would be as distasteful to them as it usually is to human slaves. 

 But it has been clearly shown by Westwood and others that it is quite unnecessary to 

 bestow our compassion upon them, as the work they perform is exactly that for which 

 they were made. The labours which the slaves undertake are not arbitrarily forced upon 

 them by the fear of punishment, but are urged upon them by the instincts implanted with- 

 in them. They would have worked precisely in the same manner and with the same 

 industry and perseverance 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 per- 

 fectly at home in the nest of their captors, and are in every respect on terms of equality 

 with their masters. They have no other home but that to which they have been brought, 

 and are no more to be pitied than our domestic animals that never have freedom. 



As the slaves are always neuters, it is necessary that fresh supplies should be obtained 

 as often as the demand for workers exceeds the available material ; consequently raids 

 have to be made for the purpose at frequent intervals during the season. 



5. — Harvesting Ants. 



From the middle of the last century until a few years ago, naturalists had agreed to 

 doubt the ancient belief, dating from the days of Solomon, that ants show forethought and 

 husbandry in the collection and storage of seeds and grains, because they had been unable 

 to observe that anything of the kind was done. It is now, however, satisfactorily proved 

 by the minute observations of competent persons, especially of Dr. Lincecum, in Texas, 

 and Mr. Moggridge, in the south of France, that certain species of ants do exhibit the 

 foresight and providence necessary for the storing of supplies of food to carry them 

 through the wintry or rainy seasons. 



Ancient authors abound in references to the harvesting operations of ants, which no 

 doubt were quite familiar to them. There are, for instance, the well-known passages in the 

 Book of Proverbs, where Solomon says (vi. 6-8): — "Goto the ant, thou sluggard; consider 

 her ways, and be wise : which having no guide, overseer, or ruler, provideth her meat in 

 the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest f and again (xxx, 25) : — " The ants 

 are a people not strong, yet they prepare their meat in the summer." Horace, Virgil, 

 Plautus, Hesiod and other classical authors, also have allusions to the foresight of the 

 ant. Claudius iElianus, who lived in the time of the Emperor Hadrian, gives a detailed 



