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NAVURAL HISYORY SOCIETY.% 
PROCEEDINGS. 
_-RIGHTEENTH SESSION, 1885—1986. 
an . Oonesnk 13th, 1885. 
~ ‘The opening meeting was held in the Council Chamber, at’ the 
‘Town Hall. In spite of the heavy rain, the attendance was large. 
‘The following paper written for a Field Day, which had been pre- 
‘vented by bad, weather, was read by the President, Dr. FitzGerald:— 
. ON ANTS. 
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» | There is perhaps no insect, I had almost said no animal, about 
which so much: has been written, and so many diverse opinions 
held, as the Ant. While sonie authorities extol its intelligence and 
wonderful instinct, amounting almost to reason, others abuse it as 
eing stupid, blundering, unequal to cope with the slightest diffi- 
ulty, and unable to see beyond the end of its antenne. I must 
confess that any casual observer who: has watched the elaborate 
_ perverseness with which an average Ant endeavours to haul some, 
quite useless, object of double its size, nowhere, by the longest and 
most impracticable route, will be inclined to adopt this latter view. 
Now I do not mean to cite Mark Twain as being absolutely in the 
