CHAP. X. ATTACHMENT OF ANTS. 319 



they belonged was eaten away, fell to the ground, - 

 having nothing to support them, and the ants would 

 thus be deprived of half of their booty : but their sa- 

 gacity was not to be thus baffled. They must soon 

 have discovered this loss ; for, upon looking on the 

 floor immediately under the board, we beheld another 

 party busily employed in carrying off the limbs which 

 their companions above had separated from the bodies, 

 and which they were then conveying to the little holes 

 in the floor, which formed the entrance to their nests. 

 All this happened between ten at night and five in the 

 morning. Gould relates a story somewhat similar ; but 

 Ligon's account of the heroic ants of Barbadoes, who 

 drown themselves that their companions may make a 

 "bridge of their bodies, is. surely a most exaggerated 

 statement. We always found that tables, whose feet 

 stood in pans of water, were perfectly secure from ants, 

 though not from cockroaches ; for these latter pests, 

 finding that they cannot crawl up the sides, betake 

 themselves to their wings, and greedily devour any en- 

 tomological specimens which the unsuspecting collector 

 may think he has left secure upon the table. The 

 manner in which ants communicate their ideas has 

 already been intimated.. Touch seems to supply to 

 them the deficiency of sound ; the different motions of 

 the antennae, and the striking of the jaws upon par- 

 ticular parts of the body, seem to be varied according 

 to the nature of the information to be communicated. 

 Nor can we feel surprise that various ideas can be 

 imparted without sound or language, properly so 

 termed, when we know that persons born deaf and 

 dumb can be conversed with for hours through the 

 medium of signs. 



(324.) Whether these extraordinary creatures expe- 

 rience attachment to individuals of their own species, 

 has been a question of much interest ; and, however 

 improbable it may at first appear, the recent observ- 

 ations of M. Huber seem to establish the fact, to a cer- 

 tain degree. He had separated a number of ants from 



