on some Carnivorous Insects. 347 



watched for a long time and, though many examinations 

 and one or two apparent consultations took place, none 

 of the eggs were taken, and the larger ones usually ended 

 in being ejected each time I put them in, I then put 

 down an egg of C. ethalion, with a ring and slightly in- 

 cubated. It was very soon picked up and carried along 

 to a tunnel, but a second of the same date received much 

 the same treatment as the other eggs. 



The above took place in the orderly bustle of a march- 

 ing column. I next went to the head of a column some 

 distance away, where the ants were well scattered out 

 over a wide area, searching, and put down on a stone they 

 were crossing two eggs of C. candiope, one of hippocoon, 

 one of P. demodocus and one of A. phalantha. They were 

 many times examined but never taken. I added an egg 

 of C. ethalion, and after being examined and left, like the 

 others, a few times, it was picked up and carried for a 

 distance, then put down. On my replacing it, this egg (and 

 none of the others) was soon picked up once more and 

 carried away. I now kept trying to bring a C. candiope 

 egg to the notice of the ants and it was always refused 

 though often examined, but a C. ethalion (very hard-set) 

 was then treated similarly. There were very few ants 

 here now, and I next went on to experiment at a spot 

 where they were covering the ground fairly thickly, and put 

 down an egg of C candiope. This was set upon by several 

 ants, but they shortly desisted and left it, and treated 

 similarly two more eggs of the same species. A P. dardanus 

 hippocoon egg, a P. demodocus egg, an A. phalantha egg 

 and eggs of A. acara were also all refused, as was the 

 about-to-hatch C. ethalion egg. The ants were already 

 becoming thinner again at this point, so I moved the eggs 

 and added a fresher C. ethalion egg, marking the place. I 

 left, and returned ten minutes later to find that the ants 

 had shifted on again, leaving all the eggs as they had 

 been put down by myself. 



I decided at this point to discontinue the experiments. 

 I had not the animals for the far more extensive series of 

 experiments that I still hope to undertake, and the ants' 

 reply to the question asked of them had been in any case 

 of a sufiiciently consistent nature so far as they themselves 

 were concerned. In spite of their rather catholic tastes, 

 they had evidently found all the eggs offered them — at 

 all events all they definitely tried^ — rather highly un- 



