.BA R VESTING ANTS. 45 



represented the amount of space contained in their 

 galleries and chambers constructed below. Tt was 

 not, ho^vever, until nineteen daj's after their capture 

 that the ants began to form systematic trains to carry 

 down the seeds which I placed for them on the 

 surface, and I suppose that they had required this 

 time for the construction and consolidation of the 

 granary chambers. From this time forward the 

 ants came out repeatedly in greater or less force to 

 gather in the various seeds with which I supplied 

 them. Indeed, throughout the whole of their cap- 

 tivity they seemed to be perfectly contented with their 

 lot and free from disease, remarkably few ants dying 

 or appearing feeble, and as far as the limited space 

 would permit they reproduced most of the habits 

 Avhich I had noted as belonging to them in a wild 

 state, .such as the formation of a rubbish heap ; 

 bringing out refuse materials, gnawed and empty 

 seed-coats, the ends of radicles, and root fibres which 

 had penetrated their nest, and laying sprouted seeds 

 in the air to dry after having gnawed off the radicle 

 in order to arrest their growth. 



I was also in this way able to see for myself much 

 that I otherwise could not have seen. Thus I was 

 able to watch the operation of removing roots which 

 had pierced through their galleries, belonging to 

 seedling plants growing on the surface, and wdiich 

 was performed by two ants, one pulling at the free 

 end of the root, and the other gnawing at its fibres 

 where the strain was greatest, until at length it gave 

 way. Again the habit of throwing sick and appa- 

 rently dead ants into the water, the object of which 

 was in part, I imagine, to be rid of them, and partly 



