242 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



[Nov. 1, 1870. 



a stillness and quiet comes over the whole com- 

 munity, and I have frequently watched for some 

 time and not seen a single ant appear above-ground. 

 And I have always observed that burrows which 

 perhaps would be extended an inch or two in the 

 course of the day, had increased in length hut very 

 little on looking at them in the morning. I also 

 have found that when two or three ants begin a 

 passage, they will almost always finish it before they 

 commence a second. 



They can walk backwards nearly as well as for- 

 wards. Eor since they always begin by running 

 their tunnels very narrow indeed, and widening 

 them afterwards, they are forced to walk backwards 

 with heavy loads till they come to a portion broad 

 enough to turn in. After a time the formicary got 

 riddled with holes, and little heaps of earth were 

 raised in all directions. The surface of the ground 

 consisted to some depth of nodules of earth, the 

 result of the ants' excavations, and some grains of 

 barley which I had laid on the surface, got so covered 

 that they vegetated luxuriantly. At any time they 

 could be induced to make a new burrow by running 

 a stick a short distance into the ground, the hole 

 made by which would be directly utilized and ex- 

 tended. Subsequently, the surface was so beset 

 with holes that a spot for fresh excavation was 

 hardly to be found. 



They sometimes, as the most expeditious mode of 

 getting rid of the earth, drop it down one of the 

 adjacent holes ; this they constantly did with one 

 shaft which they had sunk so big that I could 

 almost put my little finger down it; and no sooner 

 had one ant cleared it out, than another filled it up 

 again. As a rule, however, they are very careful to 

 keep the entrances to the holes clear, and I have 

 seen an ant remove all the pellets from around one 

 outlet, which he regarded as dangerously close. 

 After bringing earth out, they always carry it far 

 enough off to prevent its falling back into any of 

 the holes, and pat it down with their antenna? ; and 

 whenever I have either purposely or accidentally 

 thrown a little earth down one of them, the first ant 

 who discovered the dilapidations would set to work 

 and rapidly repair them. Every now and then an 

 ant would travel to the edge of the glass with a 

 piece of mould, and would drop it over on to the 

 platform with no apparent reason : and I have found 

 that, after having deposited their burden, they 

 almost invariably return to the right hole, and if 

 not, instantly discover their mistake, and retrace 

 their steps. 



The constant traffic perceptibly wore the paths 

 wider, although never actually dug at. The less- 

 used ones did not increase : for instance, those on 

 the side of the formicary which faced the wall, in 

 which there was little doing, remained the same 

 size ; whilst most of those in front, facing the light, 

 grew two or three times their original breadth. One 



of the outlets from the interior, which was very 

 much used, they made so wide that they appeared 

 to have found it necessary to leave in the centre a 

 slender round pillar to act as a support. This, 

 however, gradually wore away; but as they con- 

 tinued their excavations, they formed a precisely 

 similar one a little further back. 



There was one large outlet on the surface by the 

 roots of the grass, through which the females gene- 

 rally appeared, which had a slanting walk gouged 

 down to it, forming a very easy entrance. This was 

 the great opening into the centre of the colony. 



I found from the nest that I cut open to procure 

 my ants, that the chambers in which they store their 

 cocoons are pretty nearly round, and much resem- 

 bling the impression made by the tip of the finger in 

 moist clay, though their eggs were occasionally laid 

 in long, low, and narrow galleries. 



I made a point of trying numerous experiments to 

 see what kinds of food they would eat. Beef and 

 mutton, when it was cooked, they would have nothing 

 to say to, nor would they eat rice, strawberries, 

 raisins, currants, cherries, plums, pears, apples, jam, 

 or bread, preferring pure sugar. They will often 

 carry below both fresh barley and wheat, husking it 

 and removing it in fragments ; but I never saw them 

 actually eat it. Raspberries, worms, and honey they 

 would sometimes taste. They will generally suck 

 with avidity any kind of flesh, as I have given them 

 portions of owls, partridges, and sparrows, as well as 

 raw beef and mutton. I have found, however, that 

 food which they will refuse at one time they will 

 eagerly eat at another. Their really favourite food is 

 soaked lump sugar. Whenever I removed the re- 

 mains of a lump which they had finished eating, I 

 found a hole burrowed immediately beneath it, and I 

 have often seen the ants inside the lump working 

 away and removing little fragments. It is very 

 evident that these shafts are sunk to the lower 

 regions to facilitate the removal of sugar to feed the 

 numerous colony below. 



Fond as they are of sugar, they do not prosper 

 without auy animal diet at all. Once when they 

 had been without any for some time, I put in a 

 small 'portion of the flesh of a sparrow. Now for 

 some weeks little or nothing had been doing in the 

 formicary, and few ants ever appeared for any length 

 of lime ; but no sooner had I let go the fragment of 

 meat than, one after the other, at least half the colony 

 poured out of their holes, and the food was rapidly 

 covered with eager and hungry ants. They continued 

 eating more or less the whole day, and a new life 

 sprung up ; ants were swarming in all directions, and 

 burrowing was renewed with vigour. Since then I 

 have taken care not to let them go long without 

 animal food. I think, however, their temporary in- 

 activity may partly be accounted for by the absence 

 of females at that time. 

 After sucking a piece of flesh, nothing is left but a 



