Ants. . 187 



from one nest were reared to maturity by workers from 

 another nest and then restored to the old homestead, of 

 the forty-four that came back only seven were attacked. 

 How do they recognize their own ? 



I have pretended all along that they could talk to each 

 other, but, of course, they cannot. Experiments show 

 that the most they can do is to nudge one another, and 

 that they are unable to give directions that will tell their 

 comrades where the food is that they have found. They 

 probably cannot hear, for they do not make sounds. The 

 microphone proves that, for though the ants could be 

 heard tramping about, not one of them was whistling a 

 popular air or calling out to know who had the screw- 

 driver last. Penny whistles blown, a violin played, and 

 the most startling noises that Sir John Lubbock could 

 make with his voice did not alarm them in the least. It 

 seems likely that they do not see very well; which is 

 no more than could be expected when they have one set 

 of compound eyes that see things right side up and one 

 set of simple eyes that see things upside down, as ours 

 do. It must keep them guessing. But they are suscepti- 

 ble to light in much the same way as a photographic plate. 

 Daylight gives them the fidgets, but when it is broken up 

 into the spectrum they prefer the red end to the violet end, 

 and often as it is reversed they pick up the children and 

 take them to the red end. But the ultra-violet rays annoy 

 them most of all, for when the light passed through a 

 solution of bisulphide of carbon, which stops out the 

 actinic rays beyond the violet, they seemed to be about as 

 well contented as if they were in red light. Their sense 

 of smell is what apparently they go by most, and when a 

 brush wet with patchouli was brought to them they laid 

 back their antennae in ecstasy, as much as to say : " Oh, 

 lovely ! " 



