an article on which they feed: they are total strangers to the art of hoarding, and none of their cells are constructed with this view. The ants, whose occupations confine them at home, depend for their food on the labourers, who forage for the whole society, and bring to the nest small insects, or portions of any animal substance that may fall in their way. When the game is too bulky to be easily transported, they fill themselves with nourishment, the greater part of which they disgorge on their return, for the benefit of those that are hungry. This nutricious fluid they retain unchanged for a considerable time, when prevented from imparting it to their companions.

The food which they appear to relish above all others is an exsudation from the bodies of several species of aphis, insects which abound on the plants in the vicinity of ant hills. This species of honey is absorbed with great avidity by the ants, and apparently without the least detriment to the insect that yields it. This fact had already been noticed by Boissier de Sauvages; but several very interesting particulars, as to the mode in which this excretion is procured, have been brought to light by M. Huber. He informs us, that the liquor is voluntarily given out by the aphis, when solicited to do so by the ant, who, for that purpose, strikes it gently, but repeatedly, with its antennas, using the same motions as it does when caressing its young. He is led to believe from observation, that the aphis retains this liquor for a longer time when the ants are not at hand to receive it. A single aphis is sufficient to supply in this way many ants with a plentiful meal. Even those among them who had acquired wings, and could therefore have easily escaped from the ants, if they had been so disposed, yield ed this honey as freely as the others, and with as little appearance of fear or constraint.

Most insects become torpid when their temperature is much reduced. When it approaches the freezing point, they fall into a deep lethargy, and in that state require no food. Ants present a remarkable exception to this rule; for they are not benumbed till the thermometer has sunk to 27° of Fahrenheit, or five degrees below the freezing point. They therefore have need of a supply of provisions during the greatest part of the winter; although it is true that they are satisfied with much less than in summer. Their principal resource, however, under these circumstances, is still the same, namely, the honey of the aphis; which natural secretion appears to be expressly designed for the subsistence of ants. What confirms this view of the intentions of nature is, that the aphis becomes torpid at precisely the same temperature as the ant; a coincidence which it is hardly possible to attribute to mere chance. The winter haunts of the aphis, which are chiefly the roots of trees and shrubs, are well known to their pursuers; and when the cold is not excessive, they regularly go out to seek their accustomed supply from these insects. Some species of ants have even sufficient foresight to obviate the necessity of these journeys; they bring these animals to their own nests, where they lodge them near the vegetables on which they feed, while the domestic ants prevent them from stirring out, guarding them with great care, and defending them with as much zeal as they do their own young.

But their sagacity goes even much further than what is here related. They collect the eggs of the aphis, they superintend their hatching, continually moistening them with their tongue, and

preserving them till the proper season for their en clusion, and in a word, bestow on them all the attention which they give to the eggs of their own species. When disturbed by an intruder, they carry off these eggs in great haste to a place of safety. Different species of aphis are to be found in the same nest: several kinds of gall insects and also of kermes serve the same purposes to the ants as the aphis, affording them in like manner juices possessed of nutritious qualities. All these live in perfect harmony with their masters, who so far from offering them any molestation, defend them with courage against the ants of other societies who might attempt to purloin them. That the ants have some notion of property in these insects would appear from their occasionally having establishments for these aphises at a distance from their city in fortified buildings which they construct for this purpose alone, in places where they are secure from invasion. Here the aphises are confined as cows in a dairy, to supply the wants of the metropolis.

Our author has been at great pains to ascertain by what means these insects are enabled to cooperate in the execution of these and other designs; a cooperation which is inexplicable, except on the supposition that they possess a species of language, by which the intentions of individuals are imparted to one another, and to the community at large. The particular means apparently used for this purpose are detailed in many parts of the work; and it might, we conceive, have been instructive to have brought together, in a distinct chapter, all the facts that bore upon this interesting question. It does not appear that ants are capable of emitting sounds so as to communicate at a distance. The sense of touch is with them the principal medium of conveying impressions to one another. Some of these impressions are communicated by the one striking its head against the corselet of the other; others by bringing their mandibles in contact. The former is the signal of danger; which is spread with astonishing quickness through the whole society. During the night as well as at other times, sentinels are stationed on the outside of their habitations, who on the approach of danger suddenly descend into the midst of the tribe, and spread the alarm on every side; the whole are soon apprised of the danger; and while the greater number rush forward to repel it, with every expression of displeasure and of rage, the rest, who are attending the eggs and larva, hasten with their charge to places of greater security. The males and females, on the other hand, on being warned of the approaching combat, in which they feel themselves incapable of bearing any active part, fly for shelter to the most retired places in the vicinity.

Bonnet had imagined, that in their journeys ants directed their course chiedly by the scent remaining in the track which they had before passed. But it appears that they have various other means of finding their way; and must depend principally on the senses of sight and of touch, aided by the memory of local circumstan ces. If they should meet with annoyance in their nest, or, from any other cause, find it inconvenient to remain, they endeavour to find some other spot to which they may remove; and, for this purpose, the labourers scatter themselves abroad, and reconnoitre in every direction. The ant who has the good fortune to discover a convenient situation returns immediately home, and by certain gestures acquaints her comrades with her success, and

points out the direction of the place she has chosen. The migrations of the fallow ants (fourmis fauves) are conducted in a very singular manner. The guide carries another aut in her mouth, to the place to which she intends the colony to remove. Both then return, and each taking up another ant, bring them, in a similar manner, to the new settlement. These, when instructed in the way, return and fetch others; and this process is continued by all the guides, their numbers increasing in rapid progression till the whole has been transported to the new place of abode.

It is impossible to contemplate the actions of such minute beings, in whom not only all the parental affections subsist in as full force as in the larger animals, but the social sympathies also prevail in a much more extraordinary degree, without feelings of wonder and admiration. The zeal with which the bee will devote its life to the service of the community of which it forms a part has long been known; but the ant is not inferior to the bee either in courage or in patriotism; and, moreover, bears testimony, by unequivocal actions, of a degree of tenderness and affection which we can hardly bring ourselves to conceive could animate a being of a condition so apparently inferior. Latreille, in the course of his experiments, had deprived some ants of their antennæ: their distress was no doubt perceived and shared by their companions, who caused a transparent liquor, which probably possessed some healing properties, to flow from their own mouths, and with this they anointed the wounds of the sufferers. Many traits of their fondness and tender care of their females were witnessed by the author; they give the most remarkable proof of the permanence of their affection when any of the impregnated females happen to die; in which case, tive or six of her attendants remain with her for many days, licking and caressing the body without intermission, as if they hoped to recal her to life by their caresses. Many anecdotes are related by Mr. Huber of their readiness to assist one another, and of their manifesting a desire that their companions should participate in the advantages and enjoyments that occurred to themselves. While ants thus enjoy all the advantages of a state of civilization, they are not exempt from the passions that disturb domestic peace, and the evils that interrupt the harmony of social life. Can it be that war, with its attendant calamities, is the necessary concomitant of society; and must it also be the scourge of communities among insects, as well as among beings who pride themselves in such superior endowments? It is but too true that the history of ants affords no exception to this apparent connexion of things. The almost Utopian picture of a republic, which the preceding accounts exhibit, is deformed by features of ferocity which blend themselves with the estimable qualities we have described. In the hostilities of animals we generally find a mixture of stratagem and of force; and they consist almost wholly in occasional struggles between individuals who prey upon one another. But the modes of warfare pursued by ants is of a totally different character. Their aggressions are made by large armies; and their battles are general engagements between contending nations. The wars they wage are always open and direct, and exhibit none of the hearts of deceit; their operations are conducted on a scale of magnitude that is astonishing. The labourers and the females are the only ants that engage in these conflicts. Some species are provided with stings; others employ their jaws in the infliction

of wounds, and apply to the bitten part a drop of acrid fluid, which is secreted for this purpose. Their combined attacks upon various insects, even of considerable size, are well known. In hot climates they extend their hostilities to the sinaller quadrupeds, such as rats; and, in some countries, become formidable even to man. But the greatest enemy to the ant is the ant itself. The lesser are frequently enabled, by their courage as well as by superior numbers, to overpower the stronger species; and jealousies often spring up between rival s'ates belonging to the same species. Each has its peculiar system of tactics, which is varied according to the enemy to whom they are opposed. The fury and desperation with which they fight is inconceivable. When an ant has fastened upon his adversary, it will suffer its limbs to be torn, one by one, from its body, rather than let go its hold; and they are frequently seen to carry about with them, as trophies of their victories, the mangled portions of those they have subdued. The theatres of the most extended engagements are the forests inhabited by the fallow ants.

There is one species of large ants which Mr. Huber denominates Amazones, who inhabit the same nests with an inferior species, namely, the dark ash-coloured ant, (noir cendrée), and whom we may call their auxiliaries. As soon as the heat of summer has set in, the amazons muster their forces, and, leaving the auxiliaries to take care of the nest, march out in regular order, sometimes dividing their forces into two expeditions, but generally proceeding in one united army to the point of attack, which is always a nest belonging to ants of the same species as the auxiliaries with whom they live. These resist the aggression with great courage; but are soon compelled to fly from the superior force of the invaders, who enter at the breach they have made, nd proceed to plunder the nest of all the eggs and larvæ which they can carry off. They return laden with this booty to their own habitations, and consign it to the care of the ash-coloured ants belonging to their community, who are waiting in eager expectation to receive them. These eggs and larvæ are watched, nourished, and reared to maturity, with the same care and assiduity which the anxiliaries bestow on their own progeny; and thus they become, in process of time, inmates in the same society with those who had originally kidnapped them; and towards whom, had they been brought up at home, they would have che rished an instinctive and inveterate hatred. sole object of the amazons in these expeditions is to procure this supply of recruits for the advantage of the community to which they belong; and the sole business of their lives is to carry on these marauding adventures. They do not assist in any of the ordinary labours of the community. The tasks of building and repairing their city, of providing nourishment for the whole society, of rearing the brood of young, both of their own species and that of their companions, are entrusted solely to the race of auxiliaries, to whose services they have become entitled by right of conquest. In times of peace the amazons are totally inactive, and dependent on the labouring classes of the auxiliaries, who feed and caress them, minister to all their wants, and carry them wherever the temperature of the air is most grateful. In a word, they are gentlemen, waited on by their domestics, who appear to retain no sense of the injury that has been done them by their masters,

The

but bear towards them the tender affection of children towards their parents. The more cruel relation of master and of slave seems, indeed, to be entirely excluded from this singular association of insects. In order to have a just idea of the complex system it involves, we must recollect, that each species consists of three kinds of sexes, having perfectly distinct offices to perform: that each insect exists in three different stages of transformation; and that, in addition to the race of ants, several species of aphis are also inmates under the same roof. In some nests our author found auxiliary ants of a different species from the ash-coloured, being what he called miners (mineuses), but still bearing, in all respects, the same relations to the amazons that the ashcoloured did in the former case, and obtained from their parents by the same violent methods.

The amazons are not the only ants that carry on this species of slave-trade; the sanguine ants (fourmis sanguines) having offered analogous facts with those above related. The author even discovered nests in which the sanguine ants are attended by both the above-mentioned species of auxiliaries; thus forming a triple association of races of ants, having very different manners and habits, but concurring in the same objects of necessary industry. For the particular circumstances of these discoveries we must refer our readers to the work itself, which will amply repay the curiosity of those who peruse it.

The facts disclosed in this volume of researches are too extraordinary not to render us, at first sight, suspicious of the evidence on which they are advanced; and will naturally raise a doubt whether the narrative has not received too much embellishment from the colouring of a warm imagination. Upon a more strict examination, how ever, we do not think there exists any reasonable ground for sech suspicions: the facts are stated with sufficient distinctness to justify our placing full confidence in their accuracy, independently of the known character of the author who relates them. He every where states what he has himself seen, and what others might verify by follow ing the same methods of observation. Although many naturalists have already studied the history of ants, yet much discordance and obscurity has prevailed with regard to many essential points in their economy; a circumstance that has arisen from their never having been able to see what was going on in the interior of the nests, which is the scene of the most important and interesting features of their history. To Mr. Huber belongs the merit of inventing an apparatus, and method of observation, which bring within view all the operations which these insects had hitherto conducted in secret. The difficulties he had to contend with in contriving a glass case which would admit the light into their apartments, without alarming or disturbing them in their employments, were at first great, but by perseverance were at length overcome. Even methods which succeeded for a time were frequently defeated by the sagacity of these insects, who are extremely jealous of intruders, exquisitely sensible to all variations of temperature, and always alarmed at the presence of light in their subterranean abodes. At last, by placing wooden boxes with glass windows, in which he had introduced a nest of ants, on a table in his study, and keeping them prisoners, by immersing the feet of the table in buckets of water, he was enabled to make them the subject of continued observation, and to vary his experiments

on the same individuals. Habit, and the experie ence that no evil was intended, gradually reconciled the ants to the visits of their inspector. By comparing the results of these observations and experiments with similar ones made on the same species of ants in their natural state of freedom, he satisfied himself that perfect reliance could be placed on their accuracy.

The facts which have thus been brought to light are not valuable merely as supplying chasms in the history of a single genus of insects; they are of importance, in as far as they point to more general views of the faculties of the lower animals, and to the solution of some of the questions with regard to instinct, to which we formerly adverted. On a superficial comparison of the actions of ani mals with those of our own species, much apparent resemblance may be traced; but on examising them with more attention, with respect to the source from which they are derived, the analogy becomes much more weak, and the difficulty of explaining the greater number has been so consi❤ derable, that many philosophers have cut the knot, by referring generally the actions of man to reason, and those of brutes to instinct. It was pretended, that their faculties differed not merely in degree but in kind; and that, in a word, there existed between them no principle in common. Observation must, however, convince us, that the lower animals exert, in many instances, a choice of means for accomplishing their ends; and that they are capable of a degree of combination of those means, conformable with the variation of external circumstances. It is obvious, that actions prompted by mere appetite, which is the direct result of organization producing pain or pleasure, cannot be properly termed instinctive, at least, in the sense in which instinct is opposed to reason. Still less can it be said that instinct is the source of those actions which procure the means of gratifying appetite, when their effect in procuring those gratifications is already known to the individual who employs them. Knowledge, therefore, as far as it goes, excludes instinct. Now this knowledge may be either acquired by personal experience, or it may be derived from the tradition of others; and innumerable instances occar in which animals acquire, in both ways, that kind of knowledge that influences their conduct. But the term instinct has also been applied to actions resulting from knowledge not derived from either of these sources, that is, from innate knowledge. There are many facts, indeed, which prove, that the avenues to some species of knowledge are in animals different from what they are with us. The kid, the moment after it is dropped, and antecedent to all experience, shows us plainly, by its movements, that it knows at once, and without the long chain of inductive reasoning which Berke ley assigns as the source of our acquired percep tions of sight, the distances and situations of the ubjects which are placed before it.

It is to those actions alone that lead to beneficial consequences unforeseen by the agent, and not resulting from any knowledge of the effects they produce, that the term instinct is more peculiarly appropriated. Thus, the sagacity of the bird, which though it was yet unfledged when taken from its parent, will yet construct at a proper time a nest for its own young, and will sit over its eggs with unwearied constancy, while we must suppose it unacquainted with the future pleasures that will be the reward of these exertions, and even unconscious of their object, is properly said