426 Animal Life and Intelligence. 



ants go forth into the prairie to seek for the seeds of a kind 

 of grass of which they are particularly fond, and that they 

 take these seeds to a clearing which they have prepared, 

 and then sow them for the purpose, six months afterwards, 

 of reaping the grain which is the produce of their agricul- 

 ture ; the collection by other ants of grass to form a kind 

 of soil on which there subsequently grows a species of 

 fungus upon which they feed ; the military organization of 

 the ecitons of Central America ; and so forth. Now, the 

 description of the habits of ants forms one of the most 

 interesting chapters in natural history. But to lump them 

 together in this way, as illustrations of instinct, is a survival 

 of an old-fashioned method of treatment. That they have 

 to a very large extent an innate basis may be readily 

 admitted. But at present we are hardly in a position to 

 say how far they are instinctive, that is, performed by each 

 individual straight off, and without imitation, instruction, 

 or intelligence ; how far habitual, that is, performed after 

 some little training and practice ; how far there is the 

 intelligent element of special adaptation to special circum- 

 stances ; how far they are the result of imitation ; to what 

 extent, if any, individual training and instruction are factors 

 in the process. 



To' put the matter in another way. Suppose that an 

 intelligent ant were to make observations on human 

 activities as displayed in one of our great ] cities or in an 

 agricultural district. Seeing so great an amount of routine 

 work going on around him, might he not be in danger of 

 regarding all this as evidence of blind instinct ? Might he 

 not find it difficult to obtain satisfactory evidence of the 

 establishment of our habits, of the fact that this routine 

 work has to some extent to be learnt ? Might he not say 

 (perhaps not wholly without truth), " I can see nothing 

 whatever in the training of the children of these men to fit 

 them for their life-activities. The training of their children 



this crop is carefully harvested ; but he thinks that the ant-rice sows itself, 

 and is not actually planted by the ants (see Sir John Lubbock's " Scientific 

 Lectures," 2nd edit., p. 112). 



