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Show CHAP. VII. INSTINCT. 2~0 . . h . debted for InformatiOn }luseum, to whom I ~m mucA ltIhllo ugh fully trusti.n g t o on this and other subJects. d Mr. Smith, I tried to the statements of Hu. ber an t'cal frame of mi.n d ' as approach the su b~ · ec t 1n a sede p~ 1 doubting the truth of any one may we ll b e excdu's e loarn instinct as t h at of so extraord I. nary a nd 0 ...l:O11U S. e the observati' ons wh ic h making slaves. H enc ei. wu giv little detail. I opene d lf de 1n some . I have myse rna ' . d found a few slaves In t fF sangmnea, an . fourteen nes s o · . f males of the slave-species are all. Males. and f~rtil:.U e ro er communities: and have found only Ill theu d oin t~e Jests of F. sanguiilea .. The never been observe b half the size of their red bl k and not a ove . slaves are ac t · their appearance IS very h t the contras In masters, sot a . 1. htly disturbed, the slaves Wh the nest IS s Ig h great. en t d like their masters are muc occasionally come ~u han t . when the nest is much aO'itated and defen t ~ nes d. puprn are exposed, the ? b d d the larvrn an . . d1stur e an . ll . th their masters 111 carrymg slaves work energetica y "frl ~ t Hence it is clear, t place o sale Y· ' h them away o a 1 't t home During the mont s that the slavesJet q~~ et.:.ree su~cessive years, I have of June and u y, 1 nests in Surrey and d ~ v hours severa watche lOr manJ 1 'ther leave or enter d er saw a s ave ei Sussex, an nev. h ths the slaves are very A d ring t ese mon , 'i!f a nes. t. sb, u I th ght that t h ey m1· g ht behave dwer-few In num er, ou . but Mr. Smith informs me ently when more nume~ous ' t t various hours during that he has watched t e nes. s ; and Hampshire, May, June and August, bo{h m t~~:h present in large and has never seen the saves, ter the nest. . t · th r leave or en · numbers In A~gus ' el e strictly household slaves. Hence he considers them as d be constantly The masters, on the ~ther ha~ ' m~y and food of all seen bringing in matenals for the nes ,, . I·n the month kinds. During the present yea r' owevei, CHAP. VII. SLAVE-MAKING INSTINCT. 221 of July, I came across a community with an unusually large stock of slaves, and I observed a few slaves mingled with their masters leaving the nest, and marching along the same road to a tall Scotch-fir-tree, twenty-five yards distant, which they ascended together, probably in search of aphides or cocci. According to Huber, who had ample opportunities for observation, in Switzerland the slaves habitually work with their masters in making the nest, and they alone open and close the doors in the morning and evening; and, as Huber expressly states, their principal office is to search for aphides. This difference in the usual habits of the masters and slaves in the two countries, probably depends merely on the slaves being eaptured in greater numbers in Switzerland than in England. One day I fortunately chanced to witness a migration from one nest to another, and it was a most interesting spectacle to behold the masters carefully carrying, as Huber has described, their slaves in their jaws. Another day my attention was struck by about a score of the slave-makers haunting the same spot, and evidently not in search of food; they approached and were vigorously repulsed by an independent community of the slave species (F. fusca); sometimes as many as three of these ants clinging to the legs of the slave-making F. sanguinea. The latter ruthlessly killed their small opponents, and carried their dead bodies as food to their nest, twenty-nine yards distant; but they were prevented from getting any puprn to rear as slaves. I then dug up a small parcel of the · pupre of F. fusca from another nest, and put them down on a bare spot near the place of combat; they were eagerly seized, and carried off by the tyrants, who perhaps fancied that, after all, they had been victorious in their late combat. |