BAR VESTING A NTS. 1 9 



sponcis with tlie curious account given by iElian* of the 

 manner in which the spikelets of corn are severed and 

 thrown down " to the people below," rJ ^hfXM rJ KaT(o. 



If the incoming and weight -carrying column of 

 ants be closely examined it will be found that though 

 the great majority of workers are bringing seeds in 

 some form to the nest, a few are burdened with other 

 and more miscellaneous materials. 



Occasionally one or two may be detected carrying 

 a dead insect, or crushed land-shell, the corolla of a 

 flower, a fragment of stick, or leaf, but I have never 

 seen aphides brought in to the nest or visited by this 

 ant or by Atta structor. 



It sometimes happens that an ant has manifestly 

 made a bad selection, and is told on its return that 

 what it has brought home with much pains is no 

 better than rubbish, and is hustled out of the nest, 

 and forced to throw its burden away. In order to 

 try whether these creatures were not fallible like 

 other mortals, I one day took out with me a little 

 packet of grey and white porcelain beads, and scat- 

 tered these in the path of a harvesting train. They 

 had scarcely lain a minute on the earth before one 

 of the largest workers seized upon a bead, and with 

 some difficulty clipped it with its mandibles and 

 trotted back at a great pace to the nest. I waited 

 for a little while, ray attention being divided between 

 the other ants who were vainly endeavouring to 

 remove the beads, and the entrance down which the 

 worker had disappeared, and then left the spot. On 

 my return in an hour's time, I found the ants passing 



* Vide supra, p. 8, 



