Chambers's encyclopaedia; a dictionary of universal knowledge for the people . Nest of Carpt^nter Ants. 214 ANTACIDS—ANTAR. Many interesting anecdotes are on record illustrative of theinstincts of ants, and of the sagacity wliich they seem to appear also to have some power of communicating with eachother, in which it has been supposed that the antenna are chieflyemployed. Some such power might be supposed to be necessary,if we could venture to reason from analogy upon sucli a subject,not only to their architectural and otiier ordinary operations, inwhich many must take part, syste
Chambers's encyclopaedia; a dictionary of universal knowledge for the people . Nest of Carpt^nter Ants. 214 ANTACIDS—ANTAR. Many interesting anecdotes are on record illustrative of theinstincts of ants, and of the sagacity wliich they seem to appear also to have some power of communicating with eachother, in which it has been supposed that the antenna are chieflyemployed. Some such power might be supposed to be necessary,if we could venture to reason from analogy upon sucli a subject,not only to their architectural and otiier ordinary operations, inwhich many must take part, systematically and conjointly, but alsoin their predatory and warlike excursions; for these also some ofthe species have. If, during the jn-edatory excursions of the Attacejihalotes (a South American species), an intervening spacje occurswliich they cannot cross, some of the creatures link tliemselves to-. Section of Bank, showing Neets of the Mason A nt. gether—as monkeys, in like circumstances, have been known todo—forming a bridge over which the main body passes. Ants are,in general, both courageous and pugnacious. Many battles takeplace among them, both between individuals and large parties;and after a battle, combatants may be found locked in each othersarms, as having died together in the struggle. More extraordi-nary than anything of tliis kind, however, is the fact, sufficientlyascertained, that some species of ants go on regular forays to carryoff the larv;e and i>upa! of certain other species, which they carryto their own habitations to rear and employ them as slaves in thework which might be regarded as properly belonging to workersof their own race—a fact to which no other at all analogous hasyet presented itself in natural history. The species known thus tomake and keep slaves are Polyergm rufesceiis and Formica san-giiinea, both sometimes called Amazon Ants. It ha
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