Architecture in the Animal Kingdom. 186 



ble only by a paper bridge more than ten feet long. 

 Under the glass I then placed a small heap of earth. 

 The ants soon swarmed over the earth on to the glass 

 and began feeding on the honey. I then removed a 

 little of the earth, so that there was an interval of 

 about one-third of an inch between the glass and the 

 earth ; but, though the distance was so small, they 

 would not jump down, but preferred to go round by 

 the long bridge. They tried in vain tp stretch up from 

 the earth to the glass, which, however, was just out 

 of their reach, though they could touch it with their 

 antennae; but it did not occur to them to heap the 

 earth up a little, though, if they had moved only half 

 a dozen particles of earth, they would have secured 

 for themselves direct access to the food." It is evident 

 from this, that the ants had not the least idea of em- 

 ploying even this simple means. In all his experi- 

 ments Lubbock obtained entirely negative results. 

 There was no indication of the much-vaunted intelli- 

 gence of ants. Strange to say, William Marshall has 

 not mentioned these experiments of Lubbock in his 

 "Leben und Treiben der Ameisen," although they 

 could not have been unknown to him, as he translated 

 them himself into German; perhaps it was, because 

 the results did not fit in with his enthusiastic praise 

 of the "reflective faculty" and "inventive genius" of 

 these animals. 



This latter experiment of Lubbock was repeated 

 of late by Albrecht Bethe 1 in a somewhat different 

 form. Over a well-frequented pathway of Lusius 



*) "Duerfen wir den Ameisen und Bienen psychische Qualitaeten 

 zuschreiben?" (Bonn, 1808), p. 66. 



