iv.] POWERS OF COMMUNICATION. 119 



seem to point in an opposite direction. For instance, I 

 have already mentioned that, if a colony of the slave- 

 making ant changes the situation of its nest, the mistresses 

 are all carried to the new nest by the slaves. Again, if 

 a number of F. fusca are put in a box, and if in one 

 corner a dark place of retreat be provided for them, with 

 some earth, one soon finds her way to it. She then comes 

 out again, and going up to one of the others, takes her 

 by the jaws. The second ant then rolls herself into a 

 heap, and is carried off to the place of shelter. They 

 then both repeat the same manoeuvre with other ants, 

 and so on until all their companions are collected toge- 

 ther. Now it seems to me difficult to imagine that so 

 slow a course would be adopted, if they possessed any 

 power of communicating description. 



On the other hand, they certainly can, I think, trans- 

 mit simpler ideas. In support of this, I may adduce the 

 following experiment. Two strips of paper were attached 

 to the board just mentioned (p. 116), parallel to one 

 another ; and at the other end of each I placed a piece of 

 glass. In the glass, at the end of one tape, I placed a 

 considerable number (three to six hundred) of larvae. 

 In the second I put two or three larvae only. I then 

 took two ants, and placed one of them to the glass with 

 many larvse, the other to that with two or three. Each 

 of them took a larva and carried it to the nest, return- 

 ing for another, and so on. After each journey I put 

 another larva in the glass with only two or three larvae, to 

 replace that which had been removed. Now, if other ants 

 came, under the above circumstances, as a mere matter of 

 accident, or accompanying one another by chance, or if 

 they simply saw the larvae which were being brought, 



