102 EXPERIMENTS WITH BURIED ANTS. 



habit, or really due to a desire to extricate their 

 friends. 



With this view I tried the following experiments : — 



(1) On August 20 I placed some honey near a nest 

 of Lasius niger on a glass surrounded with water, and 

 so arranged that in reaching it the ants passed over 

 another glass covered with a layer of sifted earth, about 

 one-third of an inch in thickness. I then put some 

 ants to the honey, and by degrees a considerable num- 

 ber collected round it. Then at 1.30 p.m. I buried an 

 ant from the same nest under the earth, and left her 

 there till 5 p.m., when I uncovered her. She was none 

 the worse, but during the whole time not one of her 

 friends had taken the least notice of her. 



(2) I arranged (September 1) some honey again in 

 the same way. At 5 p.m. about fifty ants were at the 

 honey, and a considerable number passing to and fro. 

 I then buried an ant as before, taking of course one 

 from the same nest. At 7 p.m. the number of ants at 

 the honey had nearly doubled. At 10 p.m. they were 

 still more numerous, and had carried off about two- 

 thirds of the honey. At 7 a.m. the next morning the 

 honey was all gone, two or three were still wandering 

 about, but no notice had been taken of the prisoner, 

 whom I then let out. In this case I allowed the honey 

 to be finished, because I thought it might perhaps be 

 alleged that the excitement produced by such a treasure 

 distracted their attention, or even (on the principle of 

 doing the greatest good to the greatest number) that 



