410 ON THE SUPPOSED SENSE OF DIRECTION. 



ein versuchsweises Abschrieten oder Ausprobiren dea 

 unbekannten Weges handelt, oder das sich die Ameisen 

 ahnlich benehmen wie wir selbst, wenn wir etwa auf 

 einem schwanken Brette eine tiefe Gebirgskluft iiber- 

 schreiten sollen.'* 



M. Grraber's observation is, I doubt not, quite cor- 

 rect, but his inference is not well founded, nor was his 

 experiment the same as mine. It is quite true that if 

 an ant be started ofif along a narrow paper bridge, she 

 will after awhile turn round and come back again. I 

 do not, however, think that this is due, as he suggests, 

 to any sense of giddiness. Ants which habitually climb 

 trees are not likely to be affected by any such sensation. 

 It is rather, I believe, that they feel they are being 

 sent on a fool's errand. Why should they start off and 

 run straight forward into a strange country? They 

 turn round in hopes of finding their way home, whether 

 the bridge is high or low, broad or narrow, or indeed 

 whether they are on any bridge at all. M. Graber has 

 not observed that I expressly stated that in each case 

 they stopped exactly when they came to the scented 

 pencil. 



Sense of Direction. 



Fabre has made a number of experiments from which 

 he concludes that Bees have a certain sense of direction. 

 My own experiments led me to a different opinion. 

 I have now repeated some of them, and made others 

 on ants, which all led to the same conclusion. For in- 

 stance, I put down some honey on a piece of glass, close 

 to a nest of Lasius niger, and when the ants were 

 feeding I placed it quietly on the middle of a board 

 1 foot square and 18 inches from the nest. I did this 

 with 13 ants, and marked the points at which they left 



' V. Graber, ' Vergl. Grundversuche iiber die "Wirk. und d. Auf- 

 nahmestellen chem. Reize bei den Tbieren,' £wL CentralUatt, vol. 

 xiii. p. 449 (1885-6). 



