30 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



a gregarious animal, and usually goes about in suiall herds, 

 each containing from half a dozen to thirty animals ; but Mr. 

 Darwin states that he saw one herd which must have con- 

 tained at least five hundred huanacos. Iilasmuch as the habit 

 in question is only exercised once during the huanaco's life- 

 time, and then just before death, and is not wanted as part of 

 its daily round of occupations, it seems rather far-fetched to 

 suppose that the habit is become so ingrained in the mental 

 constitution of the animal that the memory of it invariably 

 revives upon the approach of death, and leads the animal 

 unerringly to a dying-place. Even if we assume that an 

 irresistible desire to seek for a dying-place seizes the animal 

 upon the approach of death, it is difficult to understand how 

 the knowledge of the whereabouts of a dying-place could be 

 inherited. It is a far more likely supposition that if a young 

 huanaco is in extremis the older members of the herd expel it 

 from their ranks, as other sick and wounded animals are usually 

 expelled by their fellows, and indicate to it whither it should go. 

 Traditional and tribal memories, perpetuated by com- 

 munication from old to young, will account for such habits 

 as the hive-making liabits of the bee and the domestic and 

 military habits of the various species of ants, which are so 

 commonly regarded as typical of the more wonderful develop- 

 ment of instinct in the lower animals. Even Charles Darwin, 

 calm philosopher as he is, writing about the intelhgence of 

 ants, rapturously observes, "The brain of an ant is one of the 

 most marvellous atoms of matter in the world, perhaps more 

 so than the brain of a man." In point of fact, an ant does 

 not possess a brain, although it does possess an assemblage 

 of gangha which in the higher animals develope into a brain. 

 The large number of ants and social bees which dwell together 

 in communities, and the rigour of their social organization, 

 make the education of the young ant or bee a matter of com- 

 parative ease. It is born into the midst of an active com- 

 munity, living day after day on a system of unchanging 

 routine, and the young ant or bee naturally falls into step 

 with its fellows. A child born and bred in a camp would 

 naturally acquire military habits. The young ant, neverthe- 

 less, seems to receive special instruction from its elders. 

 Eomanes, summing up the results of the observations made 

 upon this subject, says, "The young ant does not appear to 

 come into the world with a full instinctive knowledge of all its 

 duties as a member of a social community. It is led about 

 the nest, and ' trained in a knowledge of domestic duties, 

 especially in the case of the larva3.' Later on the young ants 

 are taught to distinguish between friends and foes. When an 

 ants' nest is attacked by foreign ants the young ants never 

 join in the fight, but confine themselves to removing the 



