9 
‘days they are, and he hasseen.an ant, helped out, from under,a stone 
by the united efforts of its friends, who, pulled it out by hauling at 
its legs, and he has watched, a disconsolate mourning ant unearth 
the recently interred body of a deceased relative ; but. there seems 
some little doubt, whether that was not for the purpose of, eating 
him. . Sir John Lubbock, intoxicated a number of ants with spirits, 
and found their friends from’ the same nest generally carried off 
their insensible relatives, but threw all strangers into, a, little ditch 
_of water. They also treated afew friendly ants to a,cold douch, but 
eventually rescued them on) discovering their mistake, but whether 
this was done on. ‘‘ blue ribbon”’. principles asa punishment, or 
not, we are unable to say. Ants dipped in water were nsually quite 
neglected; those immersed in treacle or honey were invariably 
licked dry ; now this is suspicious, and places our ant’s principles in 
a painfully doubtful light. On the whole Sir John comes to the 
conelusion that the emotion of dislike is certainly stronger than that 
of friendship in the ant, for while any‘average ant is always certain 
to attack a stranger, he is by no means so sure to assist a friend, 
unless indeed there is something to be got out of him. The principal 
food of the ants is insects, of which they consume large quantities; 
indeed, Forel, when he was observing a slave nest, found that 28 
‘dead insects per minute were brought in, which amounts to 100,000 
_insects a day, destroyed by this one nest. Darwin says this is one 
-agency by which plants are protected from insects, which would 
otherwise infest them and consume their juices. When we consider 
the countless millions of ants which exist, we can form some idea ~ 
of the myriads of insects thus destroyed. Ants, too, are very fond 
of honey and. honey dew, or any sweet substance, and Darwin, with 
his usual acuteness, has pointed out the various expedients by which 
plants are protected from their ravages which would otherwise leave 
but little honey for the bees. Sir John alludes to several of these 
‘obstacles, such as inverted hairs on the footstalks of plants, viscid 
and acrid secretions, downturned and slippery flowers, &c.; while 
water plants, which do not need the same proteotion, are destitute 
of such aids. There has been much controversy as to whether ants 
store up grain for winter use... It is almost certain no English ants 
do so; but. careful foreign observers have seen ants harvesting rice 
and other grain; now as they cannot masticate any hard substance, 
it is supposed they keep the grain until it germinates, and then suck 
_the sweet juices produced by the natural conversion of starch into 
sugar which takes. place at that time. They even check any super- 
~ abundant germination by nipping off the points of the young shoots. 
Apropos of food, it is a curious fact, that the same eggs can be 
caused to develope into either males, females, or neuters, according 
_to the kind of food supplied to the larye or grubs, As to the intelli- 
