50 ANIMAL INTELLIGENCE. 



merely deals in general statements as to * contact of 

 antennae,' without narrating any particulars of his observa- 

 tions. Therefore, until within the last few years there 

 was really no sufficient evidence to sustain the general 

 opinion that ants are able to communicate with one 

 another; but the observations which I shall now detail 

 must be regarded as fully substantiating that general 

 opinion by facts as abundant and conclusive as the most 

 critical among us can desire. I shall first narrate in his 

 own words the more important of Sir John Lubbock's 

 experiments in this connection : 



I took three tapes, each about 2 feet 6 inches long, and 

 arranged them parallel to one another and about 6 inches 

 apart. An end of each I attached to cne of the nests (F. niger), 

 and at the other end I placed a glass. In the glass at the end 

 of one tape I placed a considerable number (300 to 600) of 

 larvae. In the second I put two or three larvae only, in the 

 third none at all. The object of the last was to see whether 

 many ants would come to the glasses under such circumstances 

 by mere accident, and I may at once say that scarcely any 

 did so. I then took two ants, and placed one of them to the 

 glass with many larvae, the other to that with two or three. 

 Each of them took a larva and carried it to the nest, returning 

 for another, and so on. After each journey I put another 

 larva in the glass with only two or three larvae, to replace that 

 which had been removed. Now, if several ants came under the 

 above circumstances as a mere matter of accident, or accom- 

 panying one another by chance, or if they simply saw the larvae 

 which were being brought, and consequently concluded that 

 they might themselves find a larva in the same place, then the 

 numbers going to the two glasses ought to be approximately 

 equal. In each case the number of journeys made by the ants 

 would be nearly the same ; consequently, if it was a matter of 

 scent, the two glasses would be in the same position. It would 

 be impossible for an ant, seeing another in the act of bringing 

 a larva, to judge for itself whether there were few or many 

 left behind. On the other hand, if the strangers were brought, 

 then it would be curious to see whether more were brought 

 to the glass with many larvae than to that which only contained 

 two or three. I should also mention that every stranger was 

 imprisoned until the end of the experiment. 



The results of these experiments were that during 



