74 A NATURALIST IN HIMALAYA 



but a returning soldier is never seen. It, no doubt, 

 busies itself with important duties within the new 

 nest, but takes no further part in the migrating line. 



And as sometimes happens in human society, the 

 directors of the community, the oft-reviled aristocracy, 

 become neglectful of their great duties and sink into 

 a contemptible idleness ; so do the soldier ants, the 

 aristocracy of this insect labour, appear sometimes 

 to neglect their duties, and, instead of taking an 

 active part in the direction of this migrating stream, 

 resign themselves to abject laziness and permit the 

 busy little workers to carry them from nest to nest 

 in their jaws. 



I must now pass from these wonderful Phidole 

 ants to consider other species. I could never tire 

 of studying them, not in confinement, but on the 

 mountain sides, in the fertile fields or the sheltered 

 glens. I loved to watch them divide their labour, 

 each one to its own task, and to test and retest that 

 remarkable intercourse by which they communicate 

 one with the other. 



But because these ants communicate, it must not be 

 presumed that all ants communicate. From the study 

 of a single species of ants the presence of the power 

 of communication has been asserted and denied for 

 this whole tribe of insects. The fact appears to be 

 that one species may possess the power and another 

 not possess it, and it is quite unjustifiable to affirm or 

 deny the presence or absence of any sense from the 

 study of any single species. For do we not here find 

 the absence and presence of the power of communi- 

 cation amongst the different workers of the same 

 species ? And what is true for the power of com- 



