EXPERIMENT WITH AN ATTA. 177 



pilosa, belonging to a nest which I had brought back 

 witli me from Algeria. She was out hunting about 

 six feet from home, and I placed before her a large 

 dead bluebottle fly, which she at once began to drag 

 to the nest. I then pinned the fly to a piece of cork, 

 in a small box, so that no ant could see the fly until 

 she had climbed up the side of the box. The ant 

 struggled, of course in vain, to move the fly. She 

 pulled first in one direction and then in another, but, 

 finding her efforts fruitless, she at length started off back 

 to the nest empty-handed. At this time there were 

 no ants coming out of the nest. Probably there were 

 some few others out hunting, but for at least a quarter 

 of an hour no ant had left the nest. My ant entered 

 the nest, but did not remain there ; in less than a 

 minute she emerged accompanied by 7 friends. I 

 never saw so many come out of that nest together 

 before. In her excitement the first ant soon distanced 

 her companions, who took the matter with much more 

 sang-froid, and had all the appearance of having come 

 out reluctantly, or as if they had been asleep and were 

 only half awake. The first ant ran on ahead, going 

 straight to the fly. The others followed slowly and 

 with many meanderings ; . so slowly, indeed, that for 

 twenty minutes the first ant was alone at the fly, 

 trying in every way to move it. Finding this still 

 impossible, she again returned to the nest, not chancing 

 to meet any of her friends by the way. Again she 

 emerged in less than a minute with 8 friends, and 



