Seance du 18 Mars 191 i 



59 



slal) was now iioaily tliit'c inches IVoni ils original 

 position. 



The alniosl continuons strini^ of ants from the nest 

 readied tlie lowest slab at the point where presiously 

 Ihey left the lahle. felt about with their antennae and 

 leturned to the nest. In a few minutes not an ant was 

 lo be seen on the table allhoiigh llie lelurning ants did 

 not prevent their oncoming sistei's from going to the 

 break in the track. 



The ants on the slab ol" cork came to the edge of the 

 cork wlieie pre\iousiy the track led them to the table. 

 'J'hey followed their formel- track though now ()i"ienta- 

 ted dillerently. 



Xo way down existed at this or any other point ex- 

 cept by crawling under the slab to one of the |)ins. Most 

 of the ants retired to the carcasses, one or two occas- 

 ionally wandering out carrying nothing. After wailing 

 in \ain for some time, I placed a match on one side, 

 leading as an inclined plane to the middle slab and on 

 the other side a piece of card about 1 cm. wide also 

 leading to this slab. 



At •.) a. m. one ant which had been diligently crawl- 

 ing along the edge of the cork foi- a lew minutes crawled 

 halfway down the match, turned back and ran swiftly 

 round the edge again. 1 withdrew the card. The ant 

 returned to the match, again went half way down, 

 climbed up, went to the end of the original track, re- 

 turned to the match, went still further down and again 

 returned to tin- lirst slab, and again wandei'cd round 

 the edge, but slowly. Another ant tried the match as 

 fai' as the lirst had gone but did not make a second 

 attempt. 



