598 INSTINCT OF INSECTS. 



each other; in proof of which he related to Kalm the Swedish traveler 

 the following fact. Having placed a pot containing treacle in a closet 

 infested with ants, these insects found their way into it, and were feasting 

 very heartily when he discovered them. He then shook them out, and 

 suspended the pot by a string from the ceiling. By chance one ant 

 remained, which, after eating its fill, with some difficulty found its way up 

 the string, and thence reaching the ceiling, escaped by the wall to its nest. 

 In less than half an hour a great company of ants sallied out of their hole, 

 climbed the ceiling, crept along the string into the pot, and began to eat 

 again. This they continued until the treacle was all consumed, one swarm 

 running up the string while another passed down.^ It seems indisputable 

 that the one ant had in this instance conveyed news of the booty to his 

 comrades, who would not otherwise have at once directed their steps in a 

 body to the only accessible route. 



A German artist, a man of strict veracity, states that in his journey 

 through Italy he was an eyewitness to the following occurrence. He 

 observed a species of Scarabaeus (Ateuchxis pilularius ?) busily engaged in 

 making, for the reception of its egg, a pellet of dung, which when finished 

 it rolled to the summit of a small hillock, and repeatedly suffered to tumble 

 down its side, apparently for the sake of consolidating it by the earth 

 which each time adhered to it. During this process the pellet unluckily 

 fell into an adjoining hole, out of which all the efforts of the beetle to 

 extricate it were in vain. After several ineffectual trials, the insect 

 repaired to an adjoining heap of dung, and soon returned with three of his 

 companions. All four now applied their united strength to the pellet, and 

 at length succeeded in pushing it out ; which being done, the three 

 assistant beetles left the spot and returned to their own quarters.^ 



Lastly, insects are endowed with memory, which (at least in connection 

 with the purposes to which it is subservient) implies some degree of reason 

 also ; and their historian may exclaim with the poet who has so well sung 

 the pleasures of this faculty, 



" Hail, Memory, hail ! thy universal reign 

 Guards the least link of Being's glorious chain." 



In the elegant lines in which this couplet occurs^, which were pointed 

 out to me by my friend Dr. Alderson of Hull, Mr. Rogers supposes the 

 bee to be conducted to its hive by retracing the scents of the various 



^ Kalm's Travels in North America, i. 239. 



* Illiger, Mag. i. 488. 



* " Hark ! the bee winds her small but mellow horn, 



Blithe to salute the sunny smile of morn. 

 O'er thymy downs she bends her busy course, 

 And many a stream allures her to its source. 

 'Tis noon, 'tis night. That eye so finely wrought, 

 Beyond the search of sense, the soar of thought, 

 Now vainly asks the scenes she left behind ; 

 Its orb so full, its vision so confined ! 

 Who guides the patient pilgrim to her cell ? 

 Who bids her soul with conscious triumph swell ? 

 With conscious truth retrace the mazy clue 

 Of varied scents that charm'd her as she flew ? 

 Hail, Me.\iory, hail! thy universal reign 

 Guards the least link of Being's glorious chain." 



