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Show 196 INSTINCT. [CHAP. VII. the southern parts of England, and its habits have beer. attended to by Mr. F. Smith, of the British Museu1n, to whom I am much indebted for information on this and other subjects. Although fully trusting to the statements of I-Iuber and Mr. Smith, I tried to approach the subject in a sceptical frame of mind, as any one may well be excused for doubting the truth of so extraordinary and odious an instinct as that of making slaves. Hence I will give the observations which I have myself made, in some little detail. I opened fourteen nests of F. sanguinea, and found a few slaves in all. Males and fertile females of the slave-species are found only in their own proper communities, and have never been observed in the nests of F. sanguinea. The slaves are black and not above half the size of th~ir red 1nasters, so that the contrast in their appearance 1s very great. When the nest is slightly disturbed, the slaves occasionally come out, and like their masters are much agitated and defend the nest : when the nest is n1nch disturbed and the larvre and pupre are exposed1 the slaves work energetically with their masters in carrying them away to a place of safety. Hence, it is clear, that the slaves feel quite at home. During the n1onths of June and July, on three successive years, I have watched for many hours several nests in Surrey and Sussex, and never saw a slave either leave or enter a ne&t. As, during these months, the slaves are very few in number, I thought that they might benave differently when more numerous ; but Mr. S1nith informs me that he has watched the nests at various hours during May June and August, both in Surrey and Hamp$hire, and' has ~ever seen the . slaves, though present in large nuinbers in August, mther leave or enter the nest. Hence he considers them as strictly household slaves. The masters, on the other hand, may be constantly seen bringing in materials for the nest, an.d food of all kinds. During the present year, however, In the month of July, I came across a con1- munity 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 Scotchfir- tree, twenty-five yards distant, which they ascended CHAP. VII.] SLAVE-MAKING INSTINUT. 197 together, probably in search of aphides or cocci. According to Huber, who had ample opportunities for observation, in Switzerland the slaves habitually work wHh their masters in making the nest, and they alone open and clo.se the doors in the morning and evening ; and, as I-Iuber expressly states, their principal office is to search for aphides. This difference in the usual habits of the n1asters and slaves in the two countries, probably depends n1erely on the slaves being captured in greater nuinbers in Switzerland than in England. One day I fortu:uately chanced to witness a migration frmn one nest to another, and it was a most interesting spectacle to behold the masters carefully car1·yin0" as I-Iuber has. described, their slaves in their jaws. Angther day my attention vvas struck by about a score of the ~lave-Inakers haunting the same spot, and evidently not 1n search of food ; they approached and were vigorously repulsed by an independent comn1unity of the slave species .(F .. fusca) ;· sometiines 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 twel_lty-nine yards distant ; but they were prevented fro~ gett1ng any pupre 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 coin bat. At the same time I laid on the same place a small parcel of the pupre of another species, F flava, with a few of these little yellow ants still clinging to the fragments of the. nest. This species is sometirnes, though rarely, made Into slaves, as has been described by Mr. Smith. Although so s1nall a species, it is very courageous, and I have seen it ferociously attack other ants. In one instance I found to 1ny surprise an independent co1nn1unity of F. flava under a stone beneath a nest of the slavemaking }'. sanguinea ; and when I had accidentally disturbed both nests, the little ants attacked their big neigh- |