AXIS -FUNEKEAL HABITS. 89 



ation. When this happened the place was always a sunny nook 

 in the forest. The main column of the army and the branch 

 columns, at these times, were in their ordinary relative posi- 

 tions ; but instead of pressing forward eagerly and plundering 

 light and left, they seemed to have been all smitten with a 

 sudden fit of laziness. Some were walking sternly about, others 

 were brushing their antennae with their fore-feet ; but the 

 drollest sight was their cleaning each other. [Here follows the 

 above-quoted passage.] The actions of these ants looked like 



simple indulgence in idle amusement It is probable that 



these hours of relaxation and cleaning may be indispensable to 

 the effective performance of their harder burdens ; but whilst 

 looking at them, the conclusion that the ants were engaged 

 merely in play was irresistible. 1 



Funereal Habits. In another connection it has already 

 been stated that Sir John Lubbock found his ants to be 

 very careful in disposing of the dead bodies of their com- 

 rades. This habit seems to be pretty general among many 

 species of ants, and is no doubt due to sanitary require- 

 ments, thus becoming developed as a beneficial instinct by 

 natural selection. The funereal habits of the agricultural 

 ant are thus related by MacCook : a 



There is nothing which is apt to awaken deeper interest in 

 the life-history of ants than what may properly be called their 

 funereal habits. All species whose manners I have closely 

 observed are quite alike in their mode of caring for their own 

 dead, and for the dry carcasses of aliens. The former they 

 appear to treat with some degree of reverence, at least to the ex- 

 tent of giving them a sort of sepulture without feeding upon 

 them. The latter, after having exhausted the juices of the body, 

 they usually deposit together in some spot removed from the 

 nest. I did not see any of the ' cemeteries ' of the agricul- 

 tural ant upon the field, nor, indeed, observe any of their 

 behaviour towards the dead, but my artificial nests gave me some 

 insight of this. In the first colony had been placed eight agri- 

 culturals of another nest, which were literally cut to pieces. 

 Very soon after the ants were comfortably established in their 

 newhome,a number of them laid hold upon these disjecta membra, 

 and began carrying them back and forth around the formicarium. 

 The next day this continued, and several of their own number 



1 Loc. rnt. 2 Loc. cit. p. 337. 



