128 INTELLIGENCE IN ANTS. 



spherical one. The Anableps possesses both such forms. Mr. 

 Stewart, who has carefully dissected the optical organ of this 

 curious fish, shows that the crystalline lens itself is likewise halved, 

 the upper part being lenticular, while the lower part, beneath the 

 conjunctival band, is nearly spherical. There is, therefore, in this 

 case a very marked adaptation, the upper part of the eye being 

 adapted for vision in the air, and the lower part being conformable 

 to the type required for vision in water. It is very probable that 

 the structure of the upper half is acquired, although it would be 

 difificult to prove the fact. Perhaps such adaptation might be 

 made to disappear by causing the fish to live entirely under water. 

 — Scientific A merica n . 



3nteUioencc in ante. 



THE January number of Revista Brasileira, a monthly maga- 

 zine recently started in Rio Janeiro, contains an interesting 

 note upon the intelligence displayed by the so-called 

 Sauba Ant (probably CEcodoma cepalotes). It seems to be the 

 general opinion that these ants spare the coffee-trees that grow 

 about the ant-hills. They enjoy the shade afforded by these 

 evergreen trees, whose roots penetrate their galleries, and hence 

 endeavour to preserve them, despoiling only those which furnish 

 them no protection. The writer of the note referred to witnessed 

 near Rio an interesting exhibition of the intelligence of these 

 insects. A " Rosinante," lodged in a stable built of boards, was 

 being daily defrauded of a portion of his rations by the saubas. 

 We quote, says Insect Life, from a translation from the Portuguese, 

 kindly sent us by Mr. J. C Branner : — 



" No sooner was the corn put in the feed-trough than the 

 scouting ants announced the fact, and a line of workers was 

 immediately established, and, penetrating by the cracks between 

 the boards, they came out, each one loaded with a grain of corn, 

 with which it descended on the outside. In this descent there 

 was a reentrant angle, difficult to cross ; a single worker stationed 

 itself there and undertook to help the others over. It did this by 



