1875.] Modern Entomology. 227 
and marched off, followed by two others as mourners ; then 
two others entered the procession with a second dead ant, 
succeeded in the same way by another pair, and so on 
until all the dead were taken up—a number of (I should 
think) two hundred bringing up the rear. Following the 
train I found that the two empty-handed followers relieved 
their fellows in advance, the latter following behind in 
the place of those who had relieved them, and thus con- 
tinuing to alternate from time totime. They stopped ata 
sandy hillock, where those who marched in the rear of the 
procession commenced operations by making holes. When 
a sufficient number of graves had been dug, the dead bodies 
were laid in them, and those ants which had hitherto stood 
idle were deputed to cover them in. About six would not 
stir from their places, and on these the others fell and killed 
them ; whereupon they made a single large pit at a distance 
from the other graves, into which all the six were put and 
duly covered up. I had frequent opportunities afterwards 
of seeing the insects act much in the same manner. If one 
of the workers, however, were killed, it was buried where it 
fell, and no friends attended the funeral. The ants buried in 
state belonged tothe soldier caste.” Many other interesting 
facts -are given in illustration of the reason, or as some 
persons will still persist in calling it the “‘ instinct,” of ants. 
Dr. Lincecum, who for more than twelve years studied the 
proceedings of the Agricultural Ant of Texas (Myrmica 
barbata), and who has given an interesting account of 
his observations in the “‘ Journal of the Linnzan Society,” 
in 1861, mentions a case where these ants had their nest in 
an orchard. But after a while the orchard was opened to 
cattle, who naturally ate the succulent grass-grain which the 
ants had planted. Finding this to be the case the ants 
abandoned the orchard, and took to making their plantation 
in the garden and other spots where the cattle could not 
disturb them. 
It is commonly asserted that man alone is a progressive 
being, and that all the lower animals remain without im- 
provement at the very point which was occupied by their 
most remote forefathers. To this view it may be of course 
objected, that we do not possess accurate accounts of the 
habits of social animals extending over a sufficient length of 
time to decide such a question. But let us assume that 
some species of ant did effect a manifest step in civilisation. 
Any naturalist who observed the result would suppose that 
he had seen not something new, but merely something 
which former entomologists had overlooked, and would thus 
