II ON ANIMAL LIFE 65 
it does not imply much. To test this, there- 
fore, I made several experiments. [or in- 
stance, one cold day my Ants were almost all 
in their nests. One only was out hunting 
and about six feet from home. I took a dead 
bluebottle fly, pmned it on to a piece of cork, 
and put it down just in front of her. She at 
once tried to carry off the fly, but to her sur- 
prise found it immovable. She tugged and 
tugged, first one way and then another for 
about twenty minutes, and then went straight 
off to the nest. During that time not a single 
Ant had come out; in fact she was the only 
Ant of that nest out at the time. She went 
straight in, but in a few seconds — less than 
half a minute, — came out again with no less 
than twelve friends, who trooped off with her, 
and eventually tore up the dead fly, carrying 
it off in triumph. | 
Now the first Ant took nothing home with 
her; she must therefore somehow have made 
her friends understand that she had found 
some food, and wanted them to come and help 
her to secure it. In all such cases, however, 
so far as my experience goes, the Ants brought 
F 
