66 Chapter II, 



ceptions and individual dispositions, are the principle, 

 from which these various, spontaneous activities result, 

 with no difference as to whether the actions are per- 

 formed by ants, or by dogs and apes. 



The phenomena described above may be classed 

 among the "sports" or "games" of animals, as Groos 1 

 terms them. The facts recorded deserve these names 

 perhaps just as well as the sports and games of the 

 higher animals ; only, it is generally much more diffi- 

 cult to ascertain the nature of given facts in the case 

 of ants. Among the heaps of ants that gather on the 

 surface of the ant-hills of F. rufa and pratensis, as also 

 in my artificial nest containing sanguineas when 

 exposed in spring to the warm rays of the sun, I have 

 repeatedly observed instances of harmless wrestling, 

 beginning with and accompanied by lively and playful 

 movements of the feelers. This behavior of the ants 

 seems to be due to a resuscitation of their powers and 

 also to an excess of muscular energy after the winter's 

 rest. 



Forel (Fourmis de la Suisse p. 367) has made 

 similar observations with F. pratensis, and Huber 2 with 

 F. rufa and pratensis. I cannot consider these games 



*) "Die Spiele der Tiere" (1896), pp. 125 and 135. By the way, 

 Groos here and elsewhere was too confident in trusting the authority 

 of Buechner, who has not unfrequently misrepresented Huber's and 

 Forel's observations to suit his own purposes of humanizing the brute. 

 Forel, in the fitudes myrmecologiques, has expressly protested against 

 Buechner's misrepresentations of his observations. The book of Groos 

 contains in general a great many statements of doubtful value, in spite 

 of the critical standpoint from which the author maintains to view the 

 facts. 



2 ) Since Huber in his "Reclierches," p. 151, does not say whether 

 he means the fourmi fauve a dos rouge or that a dos noir, we are 

 hardly able to decide which ant it is. 



