LinruBan Society, 459 



dance of food, but after seeking in vain for an outlet they congre- 

 gated in one corner of the box and eventually died. His next ex- 

 pedient was to catch them in great numbers and turn them loose in 

 the cellar ; and repeating this process for several evenings, he had 

 at length the satisfaction to see a track established extending from 

 a small hole in the wall to the box in which their food was deposited. 

 After some time another track was formed to another corner of the 

 box at right angles with the first ; and these tracks were never 

 abandoned while he continued to avail himself of their services, 

 which he did not cease to employ until he had completed by their 

 means upwards of a hundred beautiful skeletons of small quadrupeds 

 and birds, reptiles and fishes, the greater part of which are now in 

 the collection of the British Museum. In the course of these ex- 

 periments he made the following further observations on their habits. 

 They will not touch anything tainted, and prefer animals in the 

 blood to such as have been previously cleaned. The plan which Mr. 

 Daniell found to answer best was to take the object quite fresh, to 

 skin it, extract the viscera and cut off as much as possible of the 

 flesh, and then to place it in the box. It is seldom that a skeleton is 

 so entirely cleaned as to require no further preparation; but the 

 smaller skeletons when taken quite fresh require only a very little 

 subsequent maceration to complete the process, the more delicate 

 and difficult portions, such as the cranium and vertebrae, being almost 

 always cleaned in preference to the ribs and limbs ; and even those 

 portions of muscle which are not removed by the ants are generally 

 so much detached by them that a slight brushing or two after well- 

 soaking the object suffices to remove them. One of the great ad- 

 vantages of this mode of preparing small skeletons was found to 

 consist in their perfectly preserving their natural size, the ants seldom 

 destroying the ligaments and the bones consequently not requiring 

 wires for their attachment, which in some of the more minute skeletons 

 it would be difficult if not impossible to apply. The labourers require, 

 however, careful watching, as after having eaten the muscles, they 

 occasionally destroy the ligaments, and even commence carrying off 

 the smaller bones ; a smart tap on the box is sufficient to drive them 

 away from the object, on which they all immediately move off in a 

 regular line to whichsoever opening they have entered at, leaving 

 the skeleton free. When the objects are too large, they quit them 

 suddenly after devouring what they think proper, so that sometimes 

 where overnight thousands might have been seen at work, in the 

 morning not one is to be found in the box ; and nothing is gained 

 by re-moistening iLe object, for they appear never again to touch 

 anything which they have once abandoned. In the summer their 

 vitality is great ; from the cavities of a skeleton that had been three 

 days immersed in water and afterwards placed in the sun, several 

 ants were seen to emerge and to become as lively as ever. But in 

 winter exposure to cold air, or immersion in water, when the ther- 

 mometer is below the freezing-point, produces instant death, sub- 

 sequent exposure to warmth failing in these circumstances to revive 

 them. Their sense of smell appears to be very acute ; if the finger 



