A CRIPPLED ANT. 107 



peared to leave the nest. At length one day I found 

 her wandering about in an aimless sort of manner, and 

 apparently not knowing her way at all. After a while 

 she fell in with some specimens of Lasius flavus, who 

 directly attacked her. I at once set myself to separate 

 them; but whether owing to the wounds she had 

 received from her enemies, or to my rough, though well- 

 meant handling, or to both, she was evidently mucl\ 

 wounded, and lay helplessly on the ground. After some 

 time another Formica fusca from her nest came by. 

 She examined the poor sufferer carefully, then picked 

 her up carefully and carried her away into the nest. 

 It would have been difficult for any one who witnessed 

 this scene to have denied to this ant the possession of 

 humane feelings. 



Again, in one of my nests of Formica fusca on 

 January 23 last (1881), I perceived a poor ant lying on 

 her back and quite unable to move. The legs were in 

 cramped attitudes, and the two antennge rolled up in 

 spirals. She was, of course, altogether unable to feed 

 herself. After this I kept my eye on her. Several 

 times I tried uncovering the part of the nest where she 

 was. The other ants soon carried her into the shaded 

 part. On March 4 the ants were all out of the nest, 

 probably for fresh air, and had collected together in a 

 comer of the box; they had not, however, forgotten 

 her, but had carried her with them. I took ofif the 

 glass lid of the box, and after a while they returned as 

 usual to the nest, taking her in again. On March 5 



