564 INSTINCT OF INSECTS, 



wall sufficient to prevent their reaching it, climbed up the wall to the height 

 of about a foot above its level, and then let themselves fall so as to alight 

 on the table, as Colonel Sykes himself witnessed with equal surprise and 

 admiration.^ Here it is obvious that it was only after experience had 

 shown the ants the inefficacy, in the altered position of the table, of their 

 former modes of attacking the sweetmeats, that they adopted this novel 

 and ingenious way of getting access to them, which, whether we refer it to 

 reason or a variation of instinct, is equally remai'kable. 



Insects, in the third place, are able mutually to commmiicate and receive 

 information, which, in whatever way effected, would be impracticable if 

 they were devoid of reason. Under this head it is only necessaiy to refer 

 you to the endless facts in proof, furnished by almost every page of my 

 letters on the history of ants and of the hive-bee. I shall therefore but 

 detain you for a moment with an additional anecdote or two, especially 

 with one respecting the former tribe, which is valuable from the celebrity 

 of the relator. 



Dr. Franklin was of opinion that ants could communicate their ideas 

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

 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 re- 

 mained, 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 {Ateicchus jnlularius ? ) 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 suc- 

 ceeded in pushing it out ; which being done, the three assistant beetles left 

 the spot and returned to their own quarters.^ 



Lastl}', insects are endowed with memory, which (at least in connection 

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



1 Trans. Ent. Soc. Land. i. 105. 



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

 5 Illiger, Mag. i. 418. 



