42 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OP [1881. 



ceeded in heaving up the clod, and then " passed by on the other 

 side.'' Meanwhile a second worker Avas perched atop of the clod, 

 coolly and cosily comhing her back-hair and antennae ! This 

 tableau is simply characteristic of the ordinary behavior of the 

 workers. 



An a[)parent exception was noted in the case of a semi-rotund 

 who was overtaken in a gangway by water with which I was sup- 

 plying the community, and stuck fast in a bed of mud. For a 

 long time the ivorkers, who were incited to masonry, as usual, by 

 the water suppl}^, dug and traveled around and over the imbedded 

 ant without notice of any sort. Finally one stopped and licked 

 the antennae and head of the prisoner, who began to struggle, and 

 so dropped down a little into the gangway. Meanwhile the first- 

 comer had left. A second ant stopped, applied the tongue a 

 moment, gave a little tug at the unfortunate, and w^as off. Still 

 the stream of workers passed on. Finally, an additional pull from 

 below was given by a concealed worker, but when I closed the 

 observation the ant was still imbedded in the mud within the 

 gangway. It was impossible to decide in this case whether the 

 helpers noted were moved b}' personal kindness, or rather (as is 

 most likely), by the same impulse which directs them in ordinary 

 mason operations and toward supposed dead comrades. 



Sir John Lubbock, who has made interesting experiments and 

 observations with a view to testing the presence of benevolent 

 feeling in ants,^ does not have a very high opinion of emmet 

 charity, but concludes that there are " individual differences," and 

 that among ants, as with men, there are Priests and Levites, as 

 w^ell as Good Samaritans. I am much inclined to the view that 

 anything like individual benevolence, as distinguished from tribal 

 or communal benevolence, does not exist. The apparent special 

 cases of beneficence, outside the instinctive actions which lie within 

 the line of formicary routine, are so rare and so doubtful as to 

 their cause, that (however loth), I must decide against anything 

 like a personal benevolent character on the part of my honey-ants. 



Such an example, indeed, as one of those cited by Lubbock,^ 

 viz., the neglect on the part of co-formicarians to remove the 

 decapitated heads of enemies from the limbs to which they are 

 firmlj' clasped, does not seem to me as remarkable as it does to 



1 Journal of the Linnsean Society, Zoology, Vol. XII, p. 497. 



2 Op. cit. p. 492. 



