106 Lieut. -Col. Sykes's Descriptions 



teemed as usual with the intruders, and I was puzzled in no small 

 degree to account for their re-appearance. Accidentally passing the 

 table, I observed an ant upon the wall, about a foot above the level 

 of the sweets : it fell, and instead of passing between the wall and 

 the table and alighting upon the ground, the insect fell upon the 

 table. Can it be possible, I said to myself, that this fall is designed ? 

 I stood to observe with the most intense curiosity : another ant 

 ascended, and dropped with similar success ; another and another 

 followed ; and there were was no longer doubt that instinct (if in- 

 stinct I must call it) had made them in this instance a match for 

 reason. But what is this " instinct," or " imj^ulse of nature," which 

 enables an animal to do that which, in those things that man can do, 

 results from a chain of reasoning, and in things which men cannot do, 

 is not to be explained by any efforts of the intellectual faculties ; 

 by which the captive and expatriated pigeon on its release flies 

 directly and unhesitatingly through the pathless air to its distant 

 home ; by which the far-removed dog returns to his master by pre- 

 viously untravelled and unknown routes ; by which the bed-bug, it 

 is said, if cut off from access to the bed by the feet or draperies, 

 ascends to the ceiling and falls upon the canopy ; and by which the 

 Formica indefessa was enabled to defeat all my jDrecautions ? 



I could multiply instances of similar mysterious power in the ani- 

 mal world from personal observation, but am debarred from indulg- 

 ing in further details by the specific object of this paper and the na- 

 ture of our Transactions. Let it suffice to remark, that the reflective 

 mind finds new causes of wonder and admiration, and new lessons of 

 humility, in almost every new inquiry into the ceconomy, relations, 

 and structure of the animate or inanimate world. 



In concluding this paper, I may add, as a suitable accompani- 

 ment, two extracts from my Diary respecting the swarming of ants. 



" Poona, October 6, 1829. — At ten o'clock in the morning, during 

 a hot sun, but after a continued fall of rain on the preceding night, 

 a nest of white ants in my garden sent forth a winged colony in 

 myriads ; the small wingless labouring white ants were busily em- 

 ployed about the orifice whence the swarm issued, apparently super- 

 intending the emigration. Scarcely had they appeared, than the 

 domestic poultry were on the alert ; Sparrows, Grackles, and Crows 

 collected in numbers, and within a quarter of an hour there were 

 some scores of Kites (Milvus Cheel) making short circles within a 

 few feet of the ground, and catching the ants as they rose upon the 

 wing. The dexterity with which these large birds avoided coming into 

 contact with each other, in rapid and whirling pursuit of their prey 

 within a very limited space, excited my surprise and admiration." 



