THE MOST GIFTED INSECT EACE. 



CHAPTER I 



ANT LIFE. 



WITHOUT brains, dull in colour, and insignificant in 

 size, the Ants are not only the most wonderful of 

 the insect race, but, next to man, perhaps the most gifted 

 of the whole animal kingdom. Sir J. Lubbock, who has 

 made a special study of these insects, goes so far as to 

 say that although the anthropoid apes approach more 

 nearly to man in bodily structure than any other animals, 

 the " Ants have a fair claim to rank next to man in the 

 scale of intelligence." 



Yet, though they have no brain, but only a series of 

 nervous ganglia connected by threads, they possess 

 reasoning powers and are marvellously intelligent ; can 

 work in concert under leaders ; can converse with each 



