90 ANIMAL INTELLIGENCE. 



who had died were being treated in like manner. Back and 

 forth, up and down, into every corner of the box the bearers 

 wandered, the very embodiment of restlessness. For four days 

 this conduct continued without any intermission. No sooner 

 would a body or fragment thereof be dropped by one bearer 

 than another would take it up and begin the restless circuit. 

 The difficulty, I easily understood, was that there was no point 

 to be found tar enough removed from the living-rooms of the 

 insects in which to inter these dead. Their desire to have their 

 <k-ad buried out of their sight was strong enough to keep them 

 on this; ceaseless round, apparently under the continuous influ- 

 ence of the hope that something might turn up to give them a 

 more satisfactory burial-ground. It does not appear greatly to 

 the credit of their wisdom that they were so long discovering 

 that they were limited to a space beyond their power to enlarge. 

 When, however, this fact was finally recognised they gave their 

 habit its utmost bent, and began to deposit the carcasses in the 

 extreme corner of the flat, as distant as possible from the 

 galleries on the terrace above. Here a little hollow was made 

 in the earth, quite xip against the glass, wherein a number of 

 bodies were laid. Portions of bodies were thrust into the chinks 

 formed in the diy sod. This flat became the permanent 

 charnel-house of the colony, and here, in corners, crevices, and 

 holes, for the most part out of sight, but not always so, the 

 dead were deposited. But the living never seemed quite recon- 

 ciled to their presence. Occasionally, restless resurrectionists 

 would disentomb the dead, shift them to another spot, or start 

 them once more upon their unquiet wanderings. Even after 

 the establishment of this cemetery, the creatures did not seem 

 able to lay away their newly deceased comrades for there were 

 occasional deaths in the formicary without first indulging in 

 this funereal promenade. 



In the formicaries established in glass jars, both of barbatus 

 and crudelis, the same behaviour appeared. So great was the 

 desire to get the dead outside the nest, that the bearers would 

 climb up the smooth surface of the glass to the very top of the 

 jar, laboriously carrying with them a dead ant. This was severe 

 work, which was rarely undertaken except under the influence 

 of this funereal enthusiasm. The jar was very smooth and quite 

 high. Falls were frequent, but patiently the little ' undertaker ' 

 would follow the impulse of her instinct, and try and try again. 

 Finally, as in the large box, the fact of a necessity seemed to 

 dawn upon the ants, and a portion of the surface opposite from 

 the entrance to the galleries, and close up against the glass, \vus 



