ANTS SPECIAL SENSES. 35 



white line represents the course then pursued by the ant 

 in its endeavours to find the pencil, which was shifted only 

 a few inches from A to B. That is, ' the ants on their 

 journey to the shifted object travelled very often back- 



Fig. 2. 



wards and forwards and round the spot where the coveted 

 object first stood. Then they would retrace their steps 

 towards the nest, wander hither and thither from side to 

 side between the nest and the point A, and only after 

 very repeated efforts around the original site of the larva? 

 reach, as it were, accidentally the object desired at B.' 

 Therefore the ants were clearly not guided by the sight 

 of the pencil. 



The same thing is well shown by another form of 

 experiment. * Some food was placed at the point a (Figs. 

 3 and 4) on a board measuring 20 inches by 12 inches, 



