70 A NATURALIST IN HIMALAYA 



must distinguish the specific odour of each returning 

 worker, and if so, then every single worker must have 

 a distinctive scent. 



How marvellous are the manifold works of Nature, 

 and what extraordinary conclusions are we forced to 

 form when we endeavour to penetrate the secrets of 

 her work. It is interesting to contemplate a host of 

 hurrying ants, to see them advance in mass to the 

 attack, do battle with the foe and drag it to the nest. 

 It is instructive to witness their strategy, their system, 

 their organization and the union of all for the general 

 good ; but few thoughts can be more wonderful, few 

 can fill us with a deeper sense of the complex scheme 

 of Nature than the knowledge that, in a nest, each 

 single one of these thousands of tiny insects is known 

 to every one of its fellow-creatures. Each little worker 

 seems but a moving speck lost in a swarm of insect 

 life, but it is a speck unlike the thousands of other 

 specks ; it has its own distinct characteristics, its own 

 individuality ; it distinguishes separately each one in 

 the countless multitude and each one distinguishes it. 



A shepherd can distinguish each sheep in his fold ; 

 man can see differences in all his fellows ; but it 

 seems a far more wonderful thought that this swarming, 

 hustling throng of insects should possess the faculty 

 of individual recognition. All these ants must differ ; 

 there can be no two quite alike. The thought arises 

 as to how far through living nature may this difference 

 extend. At times we may look into the skies and see 

 birds congregated in tremendous flocks ; we may peer 

 into the ocean on vast shoals of fishes; we may survey 

 a desert for hundreds of square miles all green with 

 swarming locusts. Do these all differ, though to us 



