168 MOUNTAIN AND MOORLAND 



resin here and there. If we open the hill a little we 

 see the hurry-scurry of the worker Ants hastening 

 down the numerous passages. If we are hard-hearted 

 enough to go deeper we see almost every worker 

 carrying a white sausagelike thing- in its mouth. 

 These white things are popularly called ants' eggs, 

 and are sold under that name as food for birds and 

 fishes. They are not the eggs, however, which are 

 much smaller, but the developing pupae, turning into 

 fully formed insects. The workers are trying to carry 

 them into safety in deeper recesses of the hill. Out of 

 the egg comes a minute white grub, which is fed and 

 grows, and moults, and eventually, after several moults, 

 sinks into the quiescent pupa stage. Inside the pupa 

 case the larval body undergoes a living dissolution 

 and is built up again on a new plan that of the adult. 

 Out of the pupa case there emerges the fully formed 

 and full-grown Ant, with a brain which Darwin called 

 the most marvellous atom of matter in the universe, 

 it has such a rich repertory of inborn capacities for 

 doing effective things. 



We must not delay at the ant hill, which is some 

 yards from the stream any way; but we cannot pass 

 by without noticing five things, (i) Just as in a bee- 

 hive, there are here (a) the fertile females or queens, 

 (b) the usually sterile females or workers, and (c) the 

 males; and among the workers there is considerable 

 division of labour. (2) It is by instinct, or inborn 

 inspiration, and not as the result of laborious intelli- 

 gent learning that Ants follow their daily routine, and 

 yet along certain lines they seem capable of learning 

 not a little. Thus, prolonged experiments have made 

 it practically certain that a good deal of the Ants' 



