INTELLIGENCE OF ANTS. 501 



Under this heading I may also allude to the unquestionable evi- 

 dence concerning enormous multitudes, or, as we might say, a whole 

 nation of ants, all recognizing one another as belonging to the same 

 nationality. No doubt the principle (whatever it may be) on which 

 the power of recognition depends is the same here as it is in the case 

 of a single nest ; but, in the cases which I am about to quote, the oper- 

 ation of this principle is indefinitely and incalculably extended. The 

 cases to which I allude are those in which new ants' nests spring up as 

 off-shoots from the older ones, so that a nation of towns, as it were, 

 gradually spreads to an immense circumference round an original cen- 

 ter. Forel describes such a nation of Formica exsecta which comprised 

 more than two hundred nests, and covered a space of nearly two hun- 

 dred square metres. Individual ants must here have been numbered 

 by the million, and yet they all knew each other as friends even 

 those taken from farthermost nests while they would admit no for- 

 eigners within their territory. 



A still more remarkable case is recorded by McCook of what he 

 calls an " ant town." The one he has described occurs in the Alle- 

 ghany Mountains of North America, and consists of sixteen or seven- 

 teen hundred nests, which rise in cones to a height of from two to five 

 feet. The ground below is riddled in every direction with subter- 

 ranean passages of communication. The inhabitants are all on the 

 most friendly terms, so that if any one nest is injured it is repaired by 

 help from the other nests. Here, also, foreign ants of the same species 

 were not tolerated ; so that we should have an analogous case if all 

 the inhabitants of Europe should be directly known to one another 

 as friends, while an American or an Australian, on setting foot upon 

 European ground, should be immediately set upon as an enemy. 



Emotions. The pugnacity, valor, and rapacity of ants are too well 

 and generally known to require the narration of special instances of 

 their display. With regard to the tenderer emotions, however, there 

 is among observers a difference of opinion. Sir John Lubbock found 

 that the species of ants on which he experimented are apparently de- 

 ficient in feelings both of affection and of sympathy. He tried bury- 

 ing some specimens of Lashis niger beneath an ant-road ; but none of 

 the ants traversing the road made any attempt to release their im- 

 prisoned companions. He repeated the same experiment, with the 

 same result, on various other species. Even when the friends in diffi- 

 culty were actually in sight, it by no means followed that their com- 

 panions would assist them. On imprisoning some friends in one bottle, 

 the mouth of which was covered with muslin, and some strangers of 

 the same species {F.fusca) in another bottle similarly protected, and 

 placing both bottles in the nests, " the ants which were at liberty took 

 no notice of the bottle containing their imprisoned friends. The 

 strangers in the other bottle, on the other hand, excited them con- 

 siderably." For days they crowded round this bottle, endeavoring to 



