54 ANIMAL INTELLIGENCE. 



The result showed that the ants were not able thus to call 

 to one another from a distance. 



As additional proof of the general fact that at all 

 events some ants have the power of communicating infor- 

 mation to one another, it will be enough here to quote an 

 exceedingly interesting observation of the distinguished 

 geologist Hague. The quotations are taken from 

 his letters written to Mr. Darwin, and published in 

 Nature : } 



On the mantelshelf of our sitting-room my wife has the 

 habit of keeping fresh flowers. A vase stands at each end, and 

 near the middle a small tumbler, usually filled with violets. 

 Some time ago I noticed a pile of very small red ants on the wall 

 above the left-hand vase, passing upward and downward be- 

 tween the mantelshelf and a small hole near the ceiling, at a 

 point where a picture nail had been driven. The ants, when 

 first observed, were not very numerous, but gradually increased 

 in number, until on some days the little creatures formed an 

 almost unbroken procession, issuing from the hole at the nail, 

 descending the wall, climbing the vase directly below the nail, 

 satisfying their desire for water or perfume, and then returning. 

 The other vase and tumbler were not visited at that time. 



As I was just then recovering from a long illness it hap- 

 pened that I was confined to the house, and spent my days in the 

 room where the operations of these insects attracted my atten- 

 tion. Their presence caused me some annoyance, but I knew of 

 no effective means of getting rid of them. For several days in 

 succession I frequently brushed the ants in great numbers from 

 the wall down to the floor ; but as they were not killed the re- 

 sult was that they soon formed a colony in the wall at the base 

 of the mantel, ascending thence to the shelf, so that before long 

 the vase was attacked from above and below. 



One day I observed a number of ants, perhaps thirty or 

 forty, on the shelf at the foot of the vase. Thinking to kill 

 them, I struck them lightly with the end of my finger, killing 

 some and disabling the rest. The effect of this was immediate 

 and unexpected. As soon as those ants which were approach- 

 ing arrived near to where their fellows lay dead and suffering, 

 they turned and fled with all possible haste. In half an hour 

 the wall above the mantelshelf was cleared of ants. 



During the space of an hour or two the colony from below 



1 Vol. vii. pp. 443-4. 



