44 HARVESTING ANTS. 



be remembered tliat, eighteen hours before, the 

 earth presented a perfectly level surface, and the 

 larvae and ants, now housed below, found themselves 

 prisoners in a strange place, bounded by glass walls, 

 and with no exit possible. 



It seems to me that the ants displayed extra- 

 ordinary intelligence in having thus at a moment's 

 notice devised a j)lan by which the superabundant 

 number of workers could be employed at one time 

 without coming in one another's way. The soil 

 contained in the jar was of course less than a tenth 

 part of that comprised within the limits of an or- 

 dinary nest, while the number of workers was pro- 

 bably more than a third of the total number belonging 

 to the colony. If therefore but one or two entrances 

 had been pierced in the soil, the workers would have 

 been for ever running against one another, and a 

 great number could never have got below to help in 

 the all-important task of preparing passages and 

 chambers for the accommodation of the larvie. These 

 numerous and funnel-shaped entrances admitted of 

 the simultaneous descent and ascent of large numbers 

 of ants, and the work progressed with proportionate 

 rapidity. After a few days only three entrances, and 

 eventually'' only one remained open. Yet for weeks 

 this active work went on, and the ants brought up 

 such quantities of earth from below that it became 

 difficult to prevent them from choking up the bottle 

 containing their water, which they repeatedly buried 

 up to the neck. On January 10 the surface of the 

 earth was raised from an inch and a half at its 

 lowest, to three inches at its highest point above 

 its original level, and this ])ulk of excavated earth 



