The wars of the red ant (M. rubra) are usually between a small number of the citizens; and the object, according to Gould, is to get rid of a useless member of the community, (it does not argue much in favour of their humanity, that it is all one if it be by sickness that this member is disabled,) rather than any real civil contest. The red colonies, (says this author,) are the only ones I could ever observe to feed upon their own species. You may frequently discern a party of from five or six to twenty, surrounding one of their own kind, or even fraternity, and pulling it to pieces. The ant they attack is generally feeble, and of a languid complexion, occasioned perhaps by some accident or other. - Gould, 104.

"I once saw one of these ants dragged out of the nest by another, without its head; it was still alive, and could crawl about. A lively imagination might have fancied that this poor ant was a criminal, condemned by a court of justice to suffer the extreme sentence of the law. It was more probably, however, a champion that had been decapitated in an unequal combat, unless we admit Gould's idea, and suppose it to have suffered because it was an unprofitable member of the community.* At another time I found three individuals that were fighting with great fury, chained together by their mandibles ; one of these had lost two of the legs of one side, yet it appeared to walk well, and was as eager to attack and seize its opponents, as if it was unhurt. This did not look like languor or sickness."

The wars of ants that are not of the same species take place usually between those that differ in size; and the great endeavouring to oppress the small, are nevertheless often outnumbered by them, and defeated. Their battles have long been celebrated; and the dates of them, as if they were events of the first importance, have been formally recorded. AEneas Sylvius, after giving a very circumstantial account of one con* One would think the writer of the account of ants, in Mouffet, had been witness to something similar. "If they see any one idle,"(says he,) "they not only drive him as spurious, without food, from the nest; but likewise, a circle of all ranks being assembled, cut off his head before the gates, that he may be a warning to their children, not to give them-selves up for he future to idleness and effeminacy." - Theatr. Ins, p. 241.

tested with much obstinacy by a great and small species, on the trunk of a pear-tree, gravely states, "This action was fought in the pontificate of Eugenius the Fourth, in the presence of Nicholas Pistoriensis, an eminent lawyer, who related the whole history of the battle with the greatest fidelity !"A similar engagement between great and small ants is recorded by Olaus Magnus, in which the small ones being victorious, are said to have buried the bodies of their own soldiers, but left those of their giant enemies a prey to the birds This event happened previous to the expulsion of the tyrant Christian the Second from Sweden. - Mouffet, Theatr. Ins 242.

M. P. Huber is the only modern author that appears to have been witness to these combats. He tells us, that when the great attack the small, they seek to take them by surprise, (probably to avoid their fastening themselves to their legs,) and, seizing them by the upper part of the body, they strangle them with their mandibles ; but when the small have time to foresee the attack, they give notice to their companions, who rush in crowds to their succour. Sometimes, however, after suffering a signal defeat, the smaller species are obliged to shift their quarters, and to seek an establishment more out of the way of danger. In order to cover their march, many small bodies are then posted at a little distance from the nest. As soon as the large ants approach the camp, the foremost sentinels instantly fly at them with the greatest rage; a violent struggle ensues, multitudes of their friends come to their assistance, and, though no match for their enemies singly, by dint of numbers they prevail, and the giant is either slain or led captive to the hostile camp. The species whose proceedings M. Huber observed, were F, herculanea, L. and F. san-giiinea, Latr.; neither of which have yet been discovered in Britain.- -Huber, 160.