26 WILD LIFE IN A SOUTHERN COUNTY. 



of the ant, and found it fail ; therefore it must possess 

 a power of correcting error which is the prerogative 

 of reason. Ants cannot, under certain conditions, dis- 

 tinguish their own special haunts. Across a garden 

 path I frequented there was the track of innumerable 

 ants ; their ceaseless journeyings had worn a visible 

 path leading, from the border on one side to the border 

 on the other, where was a tiny hole, into which they 

 each disappeared in turn. Happily, the garden was 

 neglected, otherwise the besom of the gardener would 

 have swept away all traces of the highway they had 

 made. Watching the stream of life pouring swiftly 

 along the track, it seemed to me that, like men walk- 

 ing hurriedly in well-known streets, they took no note 

 of marks or bearings, but followed each other unhesi- 

 tatingly in the groove. 



When street pavements are torn up, the human 

 stream disperses and flows out on either side till it 

 discovers by experience the most convenient make- 

 shift passage. What would be the result if this Wat- 

 ling Street of the ants were interrupted ? With a 

 fragment of wood I rubbed out three inches of the 

 path worn in the shallow film of soil deposited over 

 the old gravel, smoothing that much down level. 

 Instantly the crowd came to a stop. The foremost 

 ant halted at the edge where the groove now termi- 

 nated, turned round and had an excited conversation 

 with the next by means of their antennae ; a third 

 came up, a fourth and fifth a crowd collected, in 

 fact. Now, there was no real obstruction nothing 



