XXXKV11 
callous and utterly indifferent to one another,”—that even “ their 
devotion to their queen is of a most limited character,’—and 
that their perception of differences of colour is incontestable,—a 
deduction equally applicable to wasps. 
Some experiments were also made “ with the view of ascertain- 
ing whether the same bees act as sentinels.” Having found that 
particular scents had the effect of calling the bees out, he marked 
twelve, in all, of those which first appeared on several successive 
days; and, in nine such experiments, “‘ out of ninety-seven bees 
which came out first, no less than seventy-one were marked ones.” 
He likewise tested some of the faculties attributed to ants, and 
especially their “ power of communicating facts to one another,” 
which his first recited experiments served to corroborate ; although 
“some appeared to communicate more freely with their friends 
than others,’ which did not summon their companions to assist 
them. 
By a further series of “ Observations” on these races, more 
recently read before the Linnean Society, and communicated by 
the author to ‘ Nature’ (No. 815, Nov. 11), we are also informed 
that one ant made no less than 187 journeys in a day to carry off 
larvee one by one, without bringing any other ant to assist her; 
but, in other instances, a different result was witnessed, the ants 
which had the heaviest task to perform having “ brought far more 
friends to their assistance than those which had apparently only 
two or three larve to remove,’—these latter being replaced by 
others from time to time as each was carried off. Thus, “ of thirty 
ants which were observed, those placed to a large number of larvee 
brought 250 friends, while those placed to two or three larve 
under similar circumstances only brought eighty.” 
We also find that ants prefer a beaten track, however circuitous, 
to hazarding a short cut by dropping even “ one-tenth of an inch;”’ 
but had retreat been cut off altogether, their ingenuity to devise 
some other mode of escape might have been more sorely tested. 
In these and other experiments upon the aforesaid social tribes, 
the most striking evidence is afforded of the indefatigable industry 
with which such observations have been closely followed up from 
early morn to “ dewy eve,” and recorded with a precision rarely 
if ever surpassed; thus affording an admirable illustration how 
time may be stolen, as it were, for such objects, from other 
vocations, by activity and perseverance. . 
