ANTS— GENEEAL INTELLIGENCE. 137' 



larger ant came forward and put an end to the difficulty. It 

 rose to its full height on its hind legs, and struggled until at 

 last it seized a rather projecting splinter of the wooden leg, and 

 managed to take hold of it. As soon as this was done other 

 ants ran on to it, strengthened the hold by clinging, and so made 

 a little living bridge, over which the others could easily pass. 



The same author publishes the following very remark- 

 able observation, quoted from a letter to him by Dr. Ellen- 

 dorf : — 



It is a hard matter to protect any eatables from these 

 creatures, let the custody be ever so close. The legs of cup- 

 boards and tables in or on which eatables are kept are placed in 

 vessels of water. I myself did this, but I none the less found 

 thousands of ants in the cupboard next morning. It was a 

 puzzle to me how they crossed the water, but the puzzle was 

 soon solved ; for I found a straw in one of the saucers, which 

 lay obliquely across the edge of the pan and touched the leg 

 of the press : this they had used for a bridge. Hundreds were 

 drowned in the water, apparently because disorder had reigned 

 at first, those coming down with booty meeting those going up. 

 But now there was perfect order ; the descending stream used 

 one side of the straw, the ascending the other. I now pushed 

 the straw about an inch away from the cupboard leg ; a terrible 

 confusion arose. In a moment the leg immediately over the 

 water was covered with hundreds of ants, feeling for the bridge 

 in every direction with their antennae, running back again and 

 coming in ever larger swarms, as though they had communicated 

 to their comrades within the cupboard the fearful misfortune 

 that had taken place. Meanwhile the new-comers continued 

 to run along the straw, and not finding the leg of the cupboard 

 the greatest perplexity arose. They hurried round the edge of 

 the pan, and soon found out where the fault lay. "With united 

 forces they quickly pulled and pushed at the straw, until it 

 again came into contact with the wood, and the communication 

 was again restored. 



This observation is strikingly, though unconsciously, 

 confirmed by a recent writer in the Leisure Hour (1880. 

 pp. 718-19), who having been much troubled by small red 

 ants in the tropics swarming over his provisions, placed 

 the latter in a meat-safe detached from the wall and 

 standing on four legs, each of which was placed in a Httle 

 tin vessel containing water. Eight or ten days afterwards 



