Изображения страниц
PDF
EPUB

When spring comes each queen builds a small nest suspended from a tree branch, and consisting of a small comb inclosed in a covering or envelope open at the lower end. The nest is composed of "wasp paper," made by chewing bits of weather-beaten wood taken from old fences or outbuildings. In each of the cells the queen lays an egg. She deposits in the cell a small mass of food, consisting of some chewed insects or spiders. From these eggs hatch grubs which eat the food prepared for them, grow, pupate, and issue as worker bees, winged and slightly smaller than the queen (Fig. 97). The workers enlarge the nest, adding more combs and making many cells, in each of which the queen lays an egg. The workers provision the cell with chewed insects, and other broods of workers are

a

FIG. 97. The yellow-jacket (Vespa), a social wasp. a, worker; b, queen.

rapidly hatched. The community grows in numbers and the nest grows in size until it comes to be the great ball-like oval mass which we know so well as a hornets' nest (Figs. 98 and 99), a thing to be left untouched. Sometimes the nest is built underground. When disturbed, they swarm out of the hole and fiercely attack any invading foe in sight. After a number of broods of workers has

been produced, broods of males and females appear and mating takes place. In the late fall the males and all of the many workers die, leaving only the new queens to live through the winter.

The bumble-bees and social wasps show an intermediate condition between the simply gregarious or neighborly

[graphic][graphic]

FIG. 98.-Nest of Vespa, a social FIG. 99.-Nest of Vespa opened to show wasp. From photograph. combs within.

mining-bees and the highly developed, permanent honeybee community. Naturalists believe that the highly organized communal life of the honey-bees and the ants is a development from some simple condition like that of the bumble-bees and social wasps, which in its turn has grown out of a still simpler, mere gregarious assembly of the individuals of one species. It is not difficult to see how such a development could in the course of a long time take place.

87. Gregariousness and mutual aid. The simplest form of social life is shown among those kinds of animals in which many individuals of one species keep together, forming a great band or herd. In this case there is not much division of labor, and the safety of the individual is not wholly bound up in the fate of the herd. Such animals are

said to be gregarious in habit. The habit undoubtedly is advantageous in the mutual protection and aid afforded the individuals of the band. This mutual help in the case of many gregarious animals is of a very positive and obvious character. In other cases this gregariousness is reduced to a matter of slight or temporary convenience, possessing but little of the element of mutual aid. The great herds of reindeer in the north, and of the bison or buffalo which once ranged over the Western American plains, are examples of a gregariousness in which mutual protection from enemies, like wolves, seems to be the principal advantage gained. The bands of wolves which hunted the buffalo show the advantage of mutual help in aggression as well as in protection. In this banding together of wolves there is active co-operation among individuals to obtain a common food supply. What one wolf can not do—that is, tear down a buffalo from the edge of the herd-a dozen can do, and all are gainers by the operation. On the other hand, the vast assembling of sea-birds (Fig. 100) on certain ocean islands. and rocks is a condition probably brought about rather by the special suitableness of a few places for safe breeding than from any special mutual aid afforded; still, these seabirds undoubtedly combine to drive off attacking eagles and hawks. Eagles are usually considered to be strictly solitary in habit (the unit of solitariness being a pair, not an individual); but the description, by a Russian naturalist, of the hunting habits of the great white-tailed eagle (Haliætos albicilla) on the Russian steppes shows that this kind of eagle at least has adopted a gregarious habit, in which mutual help is plainly obvious. This naturalist once saw an eagle high in the air, circling slowly and widely in perfect silence. Suddenly the eagle screamed loudly. "Its cry was soon answered by another eagle, which approached it, and was followed by a third, a fourth, and so on, till nine or ten eagles came together and soon disappeared." The naturalist, following them, soon discovered them gathered

[graphic]

FIG. 100.-Pallas's murres (Uria lomvia arra) assembled on Walrus Island, one of the Pribilof group in Bering Sea. Photograph by HARRY CHICHESTER, photographer for the Fur Seal Commission.

about the dead body of a horse. The food found by the first was being shared by all. The association of pelicans in fishing is a good example of the advantage of a gregarious and mutually helpful habit. The pelicans sometimes go fishing in great bands, and, after having chosen an appropriate place near the shore, they form a wide half-circle facing the shore, and narrow it by paddling toward the land, catching the fish which they inclose in the ever-narrowing circle.

The wary Rocky Mountain sheep (Fig. 101) live together in small bands, posting sentinels whenever they are feeding or resting, who watch for and give warning of the approach of enemies. The beavers furnish a wellknown and very interesting example of mutual help, and they exhibit a truly communal life, although a simple one. They live in "villages" or communities, all helping to build the dam across the stream, which is necessary to form the broad marsh or pool in which the nests or houses are built. Prairie-dogs live in great villages or communities which spread over many acres. They tell each other by shrill cries of the approach of enemies, and they seem to visit each other and to enjoy each other's society a great deal, although that they afford each other much actual active help is not apparent. Birds in migration are gregarious, although at other times they may live comparatively alone. In their long flights they keep together, often with definite leaders who seem to discover and decide on the course of flight for the whole great flock. The wedgeshaped flocks of wild geese flying high and uttering their sharp, metallic call in their southward migrations are well known in many parts of the United States. Indeed, the more one studies the habits of animals the more examples of social life and mutual help will be found. Probably most animals are in some degree gregarious in habit, and in all cases of gregariousness there is probably some degree of mutual aid.

« ПредыдущаяПродолжить »