Chapter 13 Chapter 8 Instinct 1

Instincts may be compared with habits, but their origin is different - Gradation of instincts - Aphids and ants - Instincts are variable - Domestic instincts, their origin - Cuckoo, cowbird, ostrich, and parasitic wasps Natural Instincts--Slave-keeping Ants--Bees, with their hive-making instincts--Instincts and changes of structure need not occur simultaneously--Theory of Natural Selection Applied to Instinct Difficulties--Neutral or Sterile Insects-- feed. So many instincts are so inconceivable that their development may appear to the reader a difficulty which would overthrow my whole theory.I would like to declare here that I am not going to discuss the origin of intelligence, just as I have not discussed the origin of life itself.We are concerned only with the diversity of instincts, and of other psychic faculties, among animals of the same class.

I am not attempting to give any definition to instinct, but it is easy to show that this term generally encompasses several different mental operations; Know what that means.An activity that we ourselves need experience to perform, and when it is performed by an inexperienced animal, especially a young animal, and many individuals do not know for what purpose but in the same way, it is generally called for instinct.But I can show that none of these traits are universal.Even in those animals that are low in the natural system, as Pierre Huber has said, a small amount of judgment or reason often comes into play.

Frederick Cuvier and several older metaphysicians compared instinct with habit.This comparison, I think, furnishes an accurate idea of ​​the state of mind when an instinctive activity is carried out, without necessarily relating to its origin.How unconsciously many habitual activities are performed, and even many are directly opposed to our conscious will!Yet will and reason can make them change.Habits are easily associated with other habits, with certain periods of time, and with states of the body.Habits, once acquired, often remain the same throughout life.Several other similarities between instinct and habit may be pointed out.As in repeating a well-known song, in instinct one activity follows another rhythmically; if a man is interrupted in singing, or when he is repeating anything from memory, generally He will be compelled to go back again, to resume the habitual train of thought; Huber found that this is the case with the caterpillar, which can make very complicated cocoon beds; Take it out and put it in the cocoon bed that only completed the third stage of the structure. This caterpillar only rebuilds the structure of the fourth, fifth, and sixth stages.However, if the caterpillar that has completed the third stage of construction is placed in the cocoon bed that has completed the sixth stage of construction, then its work has been mostly completed, but it has not gained any benefits from it, so it feels very happy. Confused, and in order to complete its cocoon bed, it seems to have to start with the third stage of construction (from which it leaves), so it tries to finish what it has already done.

If we suppose any habitual action to be hereditary--and it may be shown that this sometimes happens--then the resemblance between original habit and original instinct becomes so close that no distinction can be made.If Mozart, instead of being able to play the piano at the age of three with very little practice, had been able to play a piece with no practice at all, then it could be said that his playing was indeed instinctive.But it would be a grave error to suppose that most instincts are acquired by habit in one generation, and are then transmitted to subsequent generations.It can be clearly shown that the most singular instincts with which we are acquainted, those of bees and of many ants, cannot be acquired from habit.

It is generally admitted that instinct is as important as the constitution of the body for the safety of species under the present conditions of life.It is at least probable, at least probable, that slight variations of instincts would benefit the species under altered conditions of life; and if it can be shown, then, that instincts, though seldom modified, have been There is no difficulty in the preservation of variations of instincts, and in continuing to accumulate to any favorable degree.In this way, I believe, all the most complex and fantastic instincts have their origin.As use or habit modifies the bodily structures, and strengthens them, and disuse makes them diminish or disappear, I do not doubt that the same is true of instinct.But I believe that in many cases the effect of habit is of a secondary importance to that of natural selection, which is called the spontaneous variation of instinct.Just as there are unknown causes for slight deviations in the constitution of the body, so are spontaneous variations of instinct.

It would probably be impossible for an instinct of any complexity to have arisen by natural selection except through the slow and gradual accumulation of many small, but beneficial, variations.Therefore, as in the case of bodily construction, what we should seek in nature should not be to acquire the actual transitional stages of every complex instinct,--for these stages are to be found only in the immediate ancestors of the individual species,-- —but we should seek some evidence of these degrees from collateral systems; or at least we should be able to show that degrees of a certain kind are possible; The instincts of animals are so seldom observed, and nothing is known about the instincts of extinct species, that it surprises me that the stages by which the most complex instincts are accomplished are so widely discovered.Variations of instincts will often be facilitated by the different instincts of the same species at different periods of life, or seasons of the year, or placed under different conditions of environment, etc.; Will preserve this or that instinct.It may be shown that the diversity of instincts within the same species also exists in nature.

Also, as in the case of the constitution of the body, the instinct of each species, which is for its own good, has never, so far as we can judge, been produced entirely for the good of other species, and this is also consistent with my theory. Compliant.I know of a very strong instance in which the actions of one animal appear to be wholly in the interest of another, as first observed by Hubert, and that is the voluntary supply of sweet secretions by aphids to ants: they thus It is done voluntarily by the following facts.I knocked out all the ants on a sorrel plant (dock-plant) and didn't let them return for a few hours, leaving about a dozen aphids in addition.After this period of time, I do feel that the aphids are going to secrete.I used a magnifying glass to observe for some time, but none of them secreted, so I tried my best to imitate the way ants touch them with their antennae, touching them gently with a hair and flapping them, but none of them secreted yet; An ant approached them, and from the way it ran away in a hurry, it seemed at once to feel that it had found such a rich food, so it began to poke the belly of the aphid with its antennae, first this one, then that one; As soon as each aphid feels its antennae, it immediately raises its abdomen and secretes a drop of clear sweet liquid, which the ants devour in haste.Even very young aphids exhibit this movement, and the activity is thus shown to be instinctive rather than the result of experience.According to Hubert's observations, the aphids certainly show no aversion to ants; if there were no ants, they would at last be compelled to excrete their secretions.But, as the excreta are extremely viscous, and would no doubt be convenient to the aphid if removed, their secretions are probably not exclusively to the benefit of the ants.Though it cannot be proved that any animal acts solely for the benefit of the other species, yet each species tries to make use of the instincts of the other species as well as the weaker constitution of the other species.Thus certain instincts cannot be regarded as absolutely perfect; but a detailed discussion of this, and others like it, is not essential, and is therefore omitted here.

Some degree of variation in instincts in a state of nature, and since the inheritance of these variations is essential to the operation of natural selection, I should give as many instances as I can; but want of space prevents me from doing so.I can only affirm that instincts are indeed variable--for example, the migratory instinct not only varies in extent and direction, but also disappears altogether, and so does the bird's nest, which varies in part according to the chosen position and place of habitation. nature and climate, but often varies for reasons quite unknown.Audubon gives several striking instances of differences in the nests of the same species in the northern and southern parts of the United States.It has been asked: If instincts are variable, why "are not bees endowed with the power to use other materials when wax is absent?" But what other natural materials are bees able to use?I have seen them work with wax hardened by adding cinnabar, or softened by adding lard.Andrew Knight observed that his bees were not assiduous in gathering tree wax, but used those glues of wax and turpentine which covered the flaking parts of the bark.It has recently been remarked that "the bee does not search for pollen, but prefers to use a very different substance, viz. oatmeal. The fear of any particular predator must be an instinctive quality which never leaves the nest." This can be seen, though the fear may be reinforced by experience or by seeing the fear of the same predator in other animals. The fear of man, as I have indicated elsewhere, is that of various animals inhabiting desert islands. Acquired slowly. Even in England we see a case where all large birds are more fearful of man than the small ones, because the large birds have been more persecuted by people. The large birds in England are more afraid of man , may be safely ascribed to this cause; for on uninhabited islands large birds are no more fearful of men than small ones; the magpie is wary in England, but docile in Norway, and the hooded crow They are also not afraid of people.

There are many facts to show that the psychic powers of animals of the same species produced in a state of nature vary greatly.Several instances may also be given of accidental and peculiar habits in wild animals, which, if advantageous to the species, have produced new instincts by natural selection.But I am well aware that general statements of this kind, without particular facts, will have but a weak effect on the minds of the reader.I have to repeat myself, and I promise I won't say anything without solid evidence. Inherited changes in habits or instincts in domesticated animals The possibility, and even the certainty, of inherited variations of instincts in a state of nature will be strengthened if a few instances under domestication are briefly considered.We may thus see the part played by habit and selection, so-called spontaneous variations, in the modification of the mental faculties of domesticated animals.It is well known how great the variation is in the mental powers of domesticated animals.Cats, for example, have a natural predilection for rats and others for mice, and we know that this tendency is hereditary.According to Mr. St. John, one cat used to catch game-birds home, another hunted hares or rabbits, and a third hunted on the swamp almost every night. Both catch some woodcock or snipe.There are many strange and true instances in which the various propensities and inclinations and eccentricities, connected with a certain state of mind or a certain period of time, are hereditary.But let us look at the examples of well-known breeds of dogs; there is no doubt that when a young guide dog is taken out for the first time it can sometimes indicate where game is, and even assist other dogs (I have personally seen such a touching case); the retriever does, to some extent, inherit the traits of holding the object; the shepherd dog does not run within the flock, but runs around the flock. tendency.Young animals do these things independently of experience, while individual individuals do them in more or less the same way, and each breed does them with joy and without knowing the destination--young guide dogs don't know it. Giving directions is helping its master any more than a white butterfly doesn't know why it lays its eggs on a cabbage leaf—so I can't see how these activities differ in nature from true instinct.If we see one kind of wolf, when it is young and untrained, as soon as it smells its prey, it stands still, like a statue, and then crawls slowly with a special gait; When wolves chase deer around, but do not go straight on, in order to drive them to distant places, we must call this activity instinct.The instincts which are called domestic are, indeed, far less fixed than the natural instincts; but the domestic instincts are also subjected to far less rigid selection, and are brought to light in shorter periods of time under less fixed conditions of life. passed down.

How strongly these domestic instincts, habits, and idiosyncrasies are inherited, and how wonderfully they mix, are best seen when different breeds of dogs are crossed.We know that the crossing of a greyhound with a bulldog affects for many generations the bravery and tenacity of the former; that of a shepherd-dog with a greyhound imparts to the whole race of the former a tendency to hunt mountain hares.These domesticated instincts, when tested by the above-mentioned method of crossing, are analogous to the natural instincts, which in like manner are strangely mixed together, and exhibit their peculiarities over a long period of time. Traces of instinct on either side of ancestry: Le Roy, for example, describes a dog whose great-grandfather was a wolf; it shows only a little trace of its wild ancestry, namely, when called upon, Not in a straight line towards its owner.

Domestic instincts are sometimes said to be actions inherited entirely from long-continued and compulsive habits, but this is not true.No one would ever imagine teaching or ever teaching a tumbler to tumble,--so far as I've seen, a young bird that has never seen a tumbler tumble, yet it does.We believe that there was once a pigeon which exhibited a slight inclination to this strange habit, and that in successive generations a long selection of the best individuals produced tumblers as they are to-day; Glasgow The domestic tumblers in the neighbourhood, as Mr. Brent tells me, do somersaults as soon as they reach a height of eighteen inches.It is doubtful that anyone would have thought of training a dog to point, if there had not been a natural tendency in a dog to point; it is known that this tendency is often found in purebred dogs, and I once saw this Orientation: As many have assumed, this orientation is probably nothing more than a prolongation of the moment an animal pauses before pouncing on its prey.Once the first tendency to indicate direction has once appeared, the hereditary effects of planned selection and forced training in each subsequent generation will quickly complete the work; and unconscious selection is still going on today, because everyone although It is not intended to improve the breed, but always to try to obtain those dogs that are the most adept at pointing and hunting.On the other hand, in some cases, mere habit is enough; there is no animal more difficult to tame than the "wild rabbit"; but I find it difficult to conceive that domestic rabbits have often been selected for tameness alone; so that the hereditary change in nature from the wild to the tame must be at least in large part due to habit and the long continuation of strict captivity. Under domestic conditions, natural instincts can disappear: the most striking examples are found in those breeds of chickens which rarely or never hatch, that is to say, they never like to brood.Convention alone prevents us from seeing what vast and lasting changes have taken place in the psychology of domesticated animals.There can be little doubt that the affection for man has become instinct in the dog.All wolves, foxes, jackals, and species of the cat genus, even after domestication, attack chickens, sheep, and pigs with the greatest deliberation; Dogs were brought into the home to raise, and it was found that this tendency could not be corrected.On the other hand, our civilized dogs, even at a very young age, seldom have to be taught not to attack chickens, sheep, and pigs!Doubtless they attack now and then, and so are beaten; and if not corrected, they are killed; civilized.Chickens, on the other hand, have lost, entirely by habit, the instinct of fear of dogs and cats which they originally had.Captain Hutton once told me that the chicks of the original breed, the Indian wild chicken (Gallus bakkiva), when reared by a hen, are at first wild.The same is true of young pheasants reared by a hen in England.Not that the chick has lost all fear, but only of the dog and the cat, for if the hen utters a cry of danger the chick runs away from under the hen's wings (especially young turkeys). , and hid in the surrounding grass or jungle.This is apparently an instinctive action which facilitates the flight of the mother bird, as we see it in wild land birds.But our chicks retain this instinct which has become useless under domestic conditions, for the hen has almost lost the ability to fly from disuse. We may therefore conclude that animals, under domestication, acquire new instincts; and lose their natural ones, partly through habit, partly through the selection and accumulation of particular mental habits and operations by man in successive generations, and The first occurrence of these habits and activities is due to accidental causes--because of our ignorance, this must be called so.In some cases compulsive habit alone is sufficient to produce hereditary changes of mind; In most cases, habit and selection probably work together. special instinct We can probably get a good idea of ​​how instincts are modified by selection in the state of nature, by considering only a few instances.I will select only three examples,--namely, the instinct of the cuckoo to lay its eggs in the nests of other birds; the instinct of certain ants to keep slaves, and the instinct of bees to build hives.Naturalists have ranked the latter two instincts, generally and rightly, among the most singular of all known. Cuckoo's Instinct Some naturalists have supposed that the more immediate cause of this instinct of the cuckoo is that she lays her eggs not every day, but at intervals of two or three days; It will take some time for the laid eggs to be hatched, or there will be eggs and chicks of different ages in the same nest.If so, the process of laying and incubating eggs would be long and inconvenient, especially since the female would migrate at a very early stage, and the first hatchlings would necessarily be reared by the male alone.But the American cuckoo is in such a predicament; for she builds her own nest, and has to lay eggs and care for successively hatched young at the same time.It has been said that the American cuckoo sometimes lays its eggs in the nests of other birds, and both agree and deny; but I have lately heard from Dr. Merrell of Iowa, who once in Il Iinois saw a young cuckoo and a young jay in the nest of the blue jay (Garrulus cristatus); Can't go wrong.I could also give several instances where various birds have frequently laid their eggs in the nests of other species.Let us now suppose that the ancient progenitors of the European cuckoo shared the habits of the American cuckoo, and that they also occasionally laid eggs in the nests of other birds.If this habit of occasionally laying eggs in the nests of other species favors the old birds, by enabling them to migrate earlier, or otherwise; Nursing by the mother bird is stronger - because the mother bird has to care for eggs and chicks of different ages at the same time without being dragged down, the old bird or the wrongly fed chick will benefit.By analogy, we may believe that the young birds thus reared will presumably, by heredity, possess the common and peculiar habits of their mother, and when they lay their eggs they will tend to lay their eggs on birds of other species. nest so that they can more successfully feed their young.I believe that the strange instincts of the cuckoo are produced by a continuum of this nature.Also, as Miller has recently established with good evidence, the cuckoo occasionally lays her eggs in clearings, incubates, and feeds her young.This rare occurrence is probably a case of the resurgence of long-lost primitive nest-making instincts. It is objected that I have not noticed in the cuckoo other related instinctual and structural adaptations, which are said to be necessarily interrelated.But in all cases it is useless to talk of an instinct of a single species which we know, for we have hitherto had no facts to guide us.Until recently we knew only of the instincts of the European and the non-parasitic American cuckoos; now, thanks to the observations of Mr. Ramsay, we know something about three species of the Australian cuckoo, which are Lay eggs in the nests of other birds.Three points may be mentioned: First, that the common cuckoo, with rare exceptions, lays only one egg in one nest, in order to provide abundant food for the large and voracious young.Second, the eggs are remarkably small, not larger than those of a sky-lark, which is only a quarter the size of a cuckoo.We infer from the very large eggs laid by the American non-parasitic cuckoo that the egg size is a real adaptation, and thirdly that the young cuckoos soon after hatch have the instinct, strength, and A properly shaped back, the expelled bird then freezes and starves to death.This was once boldly called a benevolent arrangement, because it enabled the little cuckoo to be well fed, and the stepbrother to die before he could get his senses! Now to the species of the Australian cuckoo; though they generally lay only one egg in one nest, it is not uncommon for them to lay two or even three eggs in the same nest.Eggs of the bronze cuckoo vary widely in size, from eight to ten inches in length.To deceive some of the foster relatives, or rather: to obtain incubation in a shorter period (there is said to be a correlation between the size of the egg and the period of incubation), the eggs are laid even smaller than they are now, if this is necessary for the If it is advantageous to the species, it is not difficult to believe that a race or species laying ever smaller eggs would probably have thus been formed; for smaller eggs can be hatched and fed more safely.Mr. Ramsay says that there are two species of cuckoos in Australia, which, when they lay their eggs in uncovered nests, especially select those nests in which the eggs are of a like color to their own.The species of the European rhododendron apparently exhibit a similar tendency in instinct, but not a few to the contrary; for example, she lays dark gray eggs in the nest of the hedge-warbler, which are quite different from the bright blue ones. Mix green eggs.If the above-mentioned instincts are always displayed invariably in the European cuckoo, it must also be added to all those supposed to be acquired in common.According to Mr. Ramsay, the eggs of the Australian bronze cuckoo vary in an unusual degree in colour; and therefore natural selection has presumably preserved and fixed any favorable variation in egg color and size. In the case of the European cuckoo, the foster offspring are generally expelled from the nest during the first three days after hatching; and as the cuckoo is at this time in a state of great impotence, Gould Mr. Gould used to believe that this kind of ostracism came from adoptive relatives.But now he has a reliable record of a young cuckoo, whose eyes were still closed and could not even raise his head, but drove his stepbrothers out of the nest. This is what was actually seen .Observers once picked up one of them and put it in the nest again, but it was thrown out again.As for the means of acquiring this strange and unfortunate instinct, if it is of the utmost importance to young cuckoos to get as much food as possible immediately after hatching (and probably it is), then I would like to acquire it gradually in successive generations as a sort of exclusivity. There will be no particular difficulty with the blind desires, strengths, and structures which are necessary for step-by-step action; for the young cuckoos, with this most developed habits and structures, will be most safely reared.The first step in the acquisition of this peculiar instinct was probably no more than an involuntary frenzy in young cuckoos a little older in age and strength; the habit was thereafter refined and passed on to younger cuckoos.I don't see how this is any more incomprehensible than when young birds of other birds acquire the instinct to peck at their own eggshells when they are unhatched—or, as Owen The eggshell acquires a kind of temporary sharp tooth in the upper jaw.For if the parts of the body are liable at all ages to individual variations, and the variations tend to be inherited at a comparable or earlier age--an indisputable proposition--then the juvenile Instincts and structure, indeed, as well as adults, can be slowly modified; and these two conditions must go hand in hand with the whole theory of natural selection. The Molothrus is a peculiar genus of American birds, similar to the European starling, in that some species of it have, like the cuckoo, a parasitic habit, and they have shown in the fulfillment of their instincts Interesting progression.The male and female of the brown cowbird (Molothrus badius), according to the good observer Mr. Hudson, sometimes live in groups and promiscuous lives, and sometimes lead a conjugal life.They either build their own nests, or take the nests of other birds, and occasionally throw the young of other birds out of the nest.They either lay their eggs in this nest they have appropriated, or, strangely enough, make another nest for themselves on top of it.They usually hatch their own eggs and feed their young; but, according to Mr. Hudson, they are presumably occasionally parasitic, for he has seen young birds of this species follow older birds of various species, and call ask them to feed.Another species of the genus, the multi-egg bullbird (M. bonariensis), has a more highly developed parasitic habit than the above-mentioned species, but it is far from complete.This bird, it is known, must lay its eggs in the nests of other species; but it should be remarked that several of these birds sometimes combine to build their own irregular and untidy nests, which are called Placed in particularly inhospitable places, as on the leaves of thistles, they never, so far as Mr. Hudson can be sure, complete their nests.They often lay so many eggs in a single nest of other species--fifteen to twenty--that they are rarely hatched, or not hatched at all.Also, they have a peculiar habit of pecking holes in their eggs, and the eggs of foster relatives in their own or occupied nests are all pecked off.They also laid many eggs indiscriminately in the open space, and those eggs were of course abandoned in this way.A third species, the single-egg cowbird (M. Pecoris ) of North America, has acquired the complete instinct of the cuckoo, since it never lays more than one egg in a nest of another species, so that the chicks are assured of feed.Mr. Hudson, a staunch disbelief in evolution, but he seemed so moved by the incomplete instincts of the multi-egg bullbird, quoted me, and asked: "Must we not regard these habits as Specially endowed or specially created instincts, as small consequences of a universal law—transition?” Various birds, as mentioned above, occasionally lay their eggs in the nests of other birds.This habit is not uncommon in the chicken family, and furnishes some explanation for the curious instincts of the ostrich.In the Ostrichidae several females lay together first in one nest and then in another a few eggs; the males incubate and hold these eggs.This instinct may perhaps be explained by the fact that the female lays profusely, but, like the cuckoo, only every two or three days.This instinct, however, in the rhea, as in the case of the cowbird, was not yet perfected; and as so many eggs were scattered on the ground, I picked up no less than twenty stray and discarded eggs in a day's game. eggs. Many bees are parasitic, and they frequently lay their eggs in the nests of other species, more noticeably than the cuckoo; their structure; they have no pollen-gathering apparatus, which would be necessary if they were to store food for their young.Certain species of the family Sphegida (formed like wasps) are likewise parasitic; Fabre has lately given good reason for believing that a species of wasp (Tachytes nigra), though generally making her own nest, and The larvae of the wasp store paralyzed food, but if it finds a nest made and stored by another species of wasp, it makes use of it and becomes a temporary parasite.The case is the same as that of the cow-bird or the cuckoo, and I feel that if a temporary habit is beneficial to the species, the bees which are killed at the same time will not be exterminated by ruthless plundering of their nests and stores of food, Natural selection has no difficulty in making this temporary habit permanent. The instinct to keep a slave This wonderful instinct is due to Bell's first discovery in the rufous ant (Formica [Polyerges] rufescens), a better observer even than his famous father.This ant lives absolutely upon slaves; without their aid, the species would certainly be extinct within a year.The males and the fertile females do no work, and the worker ants, the sterile females, do no other work, although they are extremely valiant in capturing slaves.They cannot build their own nests, nor can they feed their own larvae.When the old nest is no longer suitable and must migrate, it is the slave ants who decide to migrate, and actually carry the masters between their jaws. The masters are so useless that when Hubert caught three When ten shut them up, without a single slave-ant, they did not work at all, though their favorite rich food was put there, and their own larvae and pupae were put in to stimulate them to work; They don't even know how to eat, so many ants starve to death.Hubert then put in a slave ant, the black ant (F. fusca), and she immediately began to work, feeding and rescuing the survivors; and built several insect rooms to take care of the larvae, and everything was in order.What could be stranger than such a well-established fact?If we do not know of any other slave-keeping ants, it is probably impossible to conceive how such a singular instinct was ever accomplished. Another species, the blood ant (Formica sanguinea), also a slave-keeping ant, was also originally discovered by Bell.The habits of this species, found in the south of England, have been studied by Mr. F. Smith of the British Museum, and I am deeply indebted to him for his help on this and other questions.Notwithstanding my full confidence in the accounts of Hubert and Mr. Smith, I approach the matter with suspicion, as anyone who doubts the existence of such a highly abnormal instinct for slave-keeping will probably be forgiven.I would therefore like to dwell on my observations in a little detail.I have dug up fourteen nests of blood ants, and found a few slave ants in all concentrations.Males and fertile females of the slave species (black ants), found only in their own proper colonies, are never seen in concentrations of blood ants.黑色奴蚁，不及红色主人的一半大，所以它们在外貌上的差异是大的。当巢被微微扰动时，奴蚁偶尔跑出外边来，像它们主人一样地十分激动，并且保卫它们的巣；当窠被扰动得很厉害，幼虫和蛹已被暴露出来的时候，奴蚁和主人一齐奋发地把它们运送到安全的地方去。因此，奴蚁显然是很安于它们的现状的。在连续三个年头的六月和七月里，我在萨立（Surrey）和萨塞克斯（Sussex），曾对几个巢观察了几个小时，但从来没有看到一个奴蚁自一个巢里走出或走进。在这些月份里，奴蚁的数目很少，因此我想当它们数目多的时候，行动大概就不同了；但史密斯先生告诉我说，五月、六月、以及八月间，在萨立和汉普郡（Hampshire），他在各种不同的时间内注意观察了它们的巢，虽然在八月份奴蚁的数目很多，但也不曾看到它们走出或走进它们的巢。因此，他认为它们是严格的家内奴隶。而主人却不然，经常看到它们不断地搬运着造巢材料和各种食物。然而在1860年七月里，我遇见一个奴蚁特别多的蚁群，我观察到有少数奴蚁和主人混在一起离巢出去，沿着同一条路向着约二十五码远的一株高苏格兰冷杉前进，它们一齐爬到树上去，大概是为了找寻蚜虫或胭脂虫（cocci）的。于贝尔有过许多观察的机会，他说，瑞士的奴蚁在造窠的时候常常和主人一起工作，而它们在早晨和晚间则单独看管门户；于贝尔还明确地说，奴蚁的主要职务是搜寻蚜虫。两个国家里的主奴两蚁的普通习性如此不同，大概仅仅因为在瑞士被捕捉的奴蚁数目比在英格兰为多。 有一次，我幸运地看到了血蚁从一个巢搬到另一个巢里去，主人们谨慎地把奴蚁带在颚间，并不像红褐蚁的情形，主人须由奴隶带走，这真是极有趣的奇观。另一天，大约有二十个养奴隶的蚁在同一地点猎取东西，而显然不是找寻食物，这引起了我的注意；它们走近一种奴蚁——独立的黑蚁群，并且遭到猛烈的抵抗；有时候有三个奴蚁揪住养奴隶的血蚁的腿不放，养奴隶的蚁残忍地弄死了这些小抵抗者，并且把它们的尸体拖到二十九码远的巢中去当食物；但它们不能得到一个蛹来培养为奴隶。于是我从另一个巢里掘出一小团黑蚁的蛹，放在邻近战斗的一处空地上，于是这班暴君热切地把它们捉住并且拖走，它们大概以为毕竟是在最后的战役中获胜了。 在同一个时候，我在同一个场所放下另一个物种——黄蚁（F. flava）的一小团蛹，其上还有几只攀附在窠的破片上的这等小黄蚁。如史密斯先生所描述的，这个物种有时会被用作奴隶，纵使这种情形很少见。这种蚁虽然这么小，但极勇敢，我看到过它们凶猛地攻击别种蚁。有一个事例使我惊奇，我看见在养奴隶的血蚁巢下有一块石头，在这块石头下是一个独立的黄蚁群；当我偶然地扰动了这两个巢的时候，这小蚂蚁就以惊人的勇敢去攻击它们的大邻居，当时我渴望确定血蚁是否能够辨别常被捉作奴隶的黑蚁的蛹与很少被捉的小形而猛烈的黄蚁的蛹，明显地它们确能立刻辨别它们；因为当它们遇到黑蚁的蛹时，即刻热切地去捉，当它们遇到黄蚁的蛹或甚至遇到它的巢的泥土时，便惊惶失措，赶紧跑开；但是，大约经过一刻钟，当这种小黄蚁都爬走之后，它们才鼓起勇气，把蛹搬走。 一天傍晚，我看见另一群血蚁，发现许多这种蚁拖着黑蚁的尸体（可以看出不是迁徙）和无数的蛹回去，走进它们的巣内。我跟着一长行背着战利品的蚁追踪前去，大约有四十码之远，到了一处密集的石南科灌木（heath）丛，在那里我看到最后一个拖着一个蛹的血蚁出现。但我没有能够在密丛中找到被蹂躏的巣在那里。然而那巢一定就在附近，因为有两三只黑蚁极度张惶地冲出来，有一只嘴里还衔着一个自己的蛹一动不动地停留在石南的小枝顶上，并且对于被毁的家表现出绝望的神情。