POWERS OF COMMUNICATION. 171 



clear that if she had been left alone, all, or at least 

 most of, these ants would have accompanied her to the 

 store of larvae. Three of them were accidentally 

 allowed to do so ; but of the remainder, only 5 found 

 their way to the larvae ; all the others, after wandering 

 about a while, returned listlessly to the nest. 



One of the ants which I employed in my experi- 

 ments was under observation several days. I was, 

 however, away from home most of the day, and when I 

 left in the morning and went to bed at night I put her 

 in a bottle ; but the moment she was let out she began 

 to work again. On one occasion I was away for a week, 

 and on my return I let her out of the bottle, placing 

 her on a little heap of larvae about 3 feet from the 

 nest. Under these circumstances I certainly did not 

 expect her to return. However, though she had thus 

 been six days in confinement, the brave little creature 

 immediately picked up a larva, carried it off to the 

 nest, and, after half an hour's rest, returned for another. 



I conclude, then, that when large numbers of ants 

 come to food they follow one another, being also to a 

 certain extent guided by scent. The fact, therefore, 

 does not imply any considerable power of intercom- 

 munication. There are, moreover, some other circum- 

 stances which seem to show that their powers in this 

 respect are but limited. For instance, I have already 

 mentioned that if a colony of Polyergus changes the 

 ion of its nest, the mistresses are all carried to 

 the new one by the slaves. Again, if a number of F. 



