most, if not all, of the
acts of ordinary ant existence. The young ant, wasp, or bee, will
begin its labors and discharge them as perfectly at the beginning of
its existence as a perfect insect, as at the close of life. Here there
is no experience, no tuition, no consciousness, no reason, and no
powers save such as have been transferred to the insect as a mere
matter of heredity and derivation from its ancestors, who lived by an
unconscious rule of thumb, so to speak. It is very hard at first to
convince one's self, when watching an ant's nest, that intelligence
and consciousness play little or no part in the apparently intelligent
operation of these insects. But to assume the contrary would be to
maintain that the insect stands on an equal footing to man himself,
and for such a supposition there is neither lawful ground nor
sympathy. The marvellous instinct of lower life stands on a platform
of its own, has its own phases of development, and probably its own
unconscious way of progress. The higher reason and intellect of
humanity similarly possesses its own peculiar standard, rate, and
method of culture. A man may seek and find in the ways of lower
existence not merely a lesson in the ordering of his existence, but
some comfort, also, in the thought that the progress of lower nature
is not unknown in the domain of human hopes and aspirations.

[Illustration: RETURN OF ANTS AFTER A BATTLE.]

THE WILD LLAMA

(FROM A JOURNAL OF RESEARCHES, ETC.)

BY CHARLES DARWIN.

[Illustration: HEAD OF GUANACO.]

The guanaco, or wild Llama, is the characteristic quadruped of the
plains of Patagonia; it is the South American representative of the
camel in the East. It is an elegant animal in a state of nature, with
a long slender neck and fine legs. It is very common over the whole of
the temperate parts of the continent, as far south as the islands near
Cape Horn. It generally lives in small herds of from half a dozen to
thirty in each; but on the banks of the St. Cruz we saw one herd which
must have contained at least five hundred.

They are generally wild and extremely wary. Mr. Stokes told me, that
he one day saw through a glass a herd of these animals which evidently
had been frightened, and were running away at full speed, although
their distance was so great that he could not distinguish them with
his naked eye. The sportsman frequently receives the first notice of
their presence, by hearing from a long distance