31 



CHAPTER III. 



ANTS. 



Within the last ten or twelve years our information on 

 the habits and intelligence of these insects has been so 

 considerably extended, that in here rendering a condensed 

 epitome of our knowledge in this most interesting branch 

 of comparative psychology, it will be found that the 

 chapter is constituted principally of a statement of observa- 

 tions and experiments which have been conducted during the 

 short period named. The observers to whom we are mainly 

 indebted for this large increase of our knowledge are Messrs. 

 Bates, Belt, MiiUer, Moggridge, Lincecum, MacCook, and 

 Sir John Lubbock. From the fact that these naturalists 

 conducted their observations in different parts of the 

 world and on widely different species of ants, it is not 

 surprising that their results should present many points 

 of difference ; for this only shows, as we might have ex- 

 pected, that different species of ants differ considerably in 

 habits and intelligence. Therefore, in now drawing all 

 these numerous observations to a focus, I shall endeavour 

 to show clearly their points of difference as well as their 

 points of agreement ; and in order that the facts to be 

 considered may be arranged in some kind of order, I shall 

 deal with them under the following heads : — Powers of 

 special sense ; Sense of direction ; Powers of memory ; 

 Emotions ; Powers of communication ; Habits general in 

 sundry species ; Habits peculiar to certain species ; Greneral 

 intelligence of various species. 



Powers of Special Sense, 



Taking first the sense of sight, Sir John Lubbock made 

 a number of experiments on the influence of light coloured 

 by passing through various tints of stained glass, with the 



