130 Chapter III. 



deliver the threads employed in the marvelous archi- 

 tecture of Oecophylla. 



In adopting this supposition, that ants employ 

 their own children as a kind of "spinning wheel," we 

 are confronted by the extraordinary fact that animals 

 make use of an instrument, other than any bodily 

 organ, for building and defending their nests, an 

 occurrence unparalleled in the whole animal kingdom, 

 even among higher animals. But can we account 

 for the proceedings of this Indian ant on the score 

 of intelligence, that is to say, of her own, individual 

 reflection? Just as little as in the case of the other 

 specific arts and talents of animals; for they are all 

 the hereditary property of certain species, not invented 

 or learnt by independent individuals. And, therefore, 

 also the spinning talent of Oecophylla, even if it is 

 done by means of the larvae, is due to hereditary 

 instinct, not to the individual intelligence of the animal. 



To obtain proofs for attributing the architecture 

 of ants to their own intelligence we should have to 

 look for instances, in which, in consequence of indi- 

 vidual experience and reflection, these animals modify 

 their innate instincts in such a manner as to invent 

 new means of accomplishing their purpose. This is 

 the third form of independent learning, which, as we 

 have shown in a former publication, 1 is a real proof 

 of the intelligence of the learner. We must, there- 

 fore, examine, whether the building activity of ants 



1 ) In the chapter on the different forms of learning in "Instinct 

 and Intelligence" (Herder, St. Louis, 1903). A more detailed discussion 

 of this point will also be found in our publication, "Die psychischen 

 Faehigkeiten der Ameisen" (Zoologica," 26th issue, Stuttgart, 1899), 

 pp. 82-114. 



