om place to place, if not to the shame, at least to
the discomfiture of the culprit.

"The cuckoo is certainly a favourite with them; as Green says, 'they,
(the lesser birds,) are mightily ta'en up with it;' but to what it owes
its influence with its parasites I leave to you and other philosophical
naturalists to determine: I am content to relate, in simple terms, an
interesting fact."

There is so much analogy with these cuckoo-proceedings in the habits of
Ants, that, although these cannot correctly be designated as parasites,
the details of their manners will not be wholly out of place, in winding
up this chapter. I refer to the propensity manifested by certain species
of ants to make slaves of the workers of another species, leading them
into captivity and compelling them to labour for the benefit of the
marauders. Strangely enough, the parallel between the human and the
formican slave-trade holds to this further extent that, so far as we
know, the kidnappers are red or pale-coloured ants, and the slaves, like
true _niggers_, are black.

The slave-hunting expeditions are planned and executed with the utmost
skill and courage. "When the red ants are about to sally forth on a
marauding expedition, they send scouts to ascertain the exact position
in which a colony of negroes may be found; these scouts, having
discovered the object of their search, return to the nest, and report
their success. Shortly afterwards the army of red ants marches forth,
headed by a vanguard which is perpetually changing; the individuals
which constitute it, when they have advanced a little before the main
body, halting, falling into the rear, and being replaced by others: this
vanguard consists of eight or ten ants only.

"When they have arrived near the negro colony, they disperse, wandering
through the herbage and hunting about, as if aware of the propinquity of
the object of their search, yet ignorant of its exact position. At last
they discover the settlement, and the foremost of the invaders rushing
impetuously to the attack, are met, grappled with, and frequently killed
by the negroes on guard; the alarm is quickly communicated to the
interior of the nest; the negroes sally forth by thousands, and the red
ants rushing to the rescue, a desperate conflict ensues, which, however,
always terminates in the defeat of the negroes, who retire to the inmost
recesses of their habitation. Now follows the scene of pillage; the red
ants, with the