41 



SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



Antiquity 

 Apes 



regions. Indeed, the quantity of grain thus 

 stored up is sometimes so considerable that 

 in the " Mishna " rules are laid down with 

 reference to it; and various commentators, 

 including the celebrated Maimonides, have 

 discussed at length the question whether 

 such grain belonged to the owner of the 

 land, or might be taken by gleaners giv- 

 ing the latter the benefit of the doubt. They 

 do not appear to have considered the rights 

 of the ants. AVEBURY Ants, Bees, and 

 Wasps, ch. 3, p. 59. (A., 1900.) 



208. ANTS, THE LEAF-CUTTING 

 SPECIES OF Systematic Industry among 

 Insects Building Thatched Roofs of Cut 

 Leaves. It is a most interesting sight to 

 see the vast host of busy diminutive labor- 

 ers [the Saiiba ants] occupied on this work 

 [of leaf-cutting] . Unfortunately they choose 

 cultivated trees for their purpose. This ant 

 is quite peculiar to tropical America, as is 

 the entire genus to which it belongs; it 

 sometimes despoils the young trees of species 

 growing wild in its native forests, but seems 

 to prefer, when within reach, plants im- 

 ported from other countries, such as the cof- 

 fee and orange trees. It has not hitherto 

 been sho\vn satisfactorily to what use it ap- 

 plies the leaves. I discovered this only after 

 much time spent in investigation. The 

 leaves are used to thatch the domes which 

 cover the entrances to their subterranean 

 dwellings, thereby protecting from the del- 

 uging rains the young broods in the nests 

 beneath. The larger mounds, already de- 

 scribed, are so extensive that few persons 

 would attempt to remove them for the pur- 

 pose of examining their interior ; but smaller 

 hillocks, cover ing other entrances to the same 

 system of tunnels and chambers, may be 

 found in sheltered places, and these are al- 

 ways thatched with leaves, mingled with 

 granules of earth. The heavily laden 

 workers, each carrying its segment of leaf 

 vertically, the lower edge secured in its 

 mandibles, troop up and cast their burdens 

 on the hillock; another relay of laborers 

 place the leaves in position, covering them 

 with a layer of earthy granules, which are 

 brought one by one from the soil beneath. 

 BATES Naturalist on the River Amazon, ch. 

 1, p. 627. (Hum., 1880.) 



209. ANTS TRACKING ONE ANOTH- 

 ER BY SCENT Huber's Experiment. That 

 ants track one another by scent was long 

 ago mentioned by Huber, and also that they 

 depend on this sense for their power of 

 finding supplies which have been previously 

 found by other ants. Huber proved their 

 power of tracking a path previously pur- 

 sued by their friends, by drawing his finger 

 across the trail, so obliterating the scent 

 at that point, and observing that when the 

 ants arrived at that point they became con- 

 fused and ran about in various directions 

 till thev again came upon the trail on the 

 other side of the interrupted space, when 



they proceeded on their way as before. The 

 more numerous and systematic experiments 

 of Sir John Lubbock have fully corrobo- 

 rated Huber's observations. ROMANES Ani- 

 mal Intelligence, ch. 3, p. 33. (A., 1899.) 



210. ANTS USELESS OR INJURIOUS 

 TO FLOWERS Nature Shuts Them Off in 

 Favor of Bees. If larger flowers were 

 visited by ants, not only would they deprive 

 the flowers of their honey without fulfilling 

 any useful function in return, but they 

 would probably prevent the~really useful 

 visits of bees. If you touch an ant with 

 a needle or a bristle, she is almost sure to 

 seize it in her jaws; and if bees, when 

 visiting any particular plant, were liable 

 to have the delicate tip of their proboscis 

 seized on by the horny jaws of an ant, we 

 may be sure that such a species of plant 

 would soon cease to be visited. On the 

 other hand, we know how fond ants are of 

 honey, and how zealously and unremittingly 

 they search for food. How is it then that 

 they do not anticipate the bees, and secure 

 the honey for themselves? This is guarded 

 against in several ways [as by hairy or 

 slippery surfaces, cups of water around the 

 stem, etc.]. AVEBURY Ants, Bees, and 

 Wasps, ch. 3, p. 51. (A., 1900.) 



211. APES, ANTHROPOID, NOT 

 FOUND IN AMERICA Spider-monkey the 

 Limit of Development in the New World 

 Prehensile Tails Mark American Monkeys. 

 The forest at Obydos seemed to abound 

 in monkeys, for I rarely passed a day with- 

 out seeing several. I noticed four species: 

 the Coaita (Ateles paniscus), the Chryso- 

 thrix sciureus, the Callithrix torquatus, 

 and our old Para friend, Midas ursulus. 

 The Coaita is a large black monkey, covered 

 with coarse hair, and having the prominent 

 parts of the face of a tawny flesh-colored 

 hue. It is the largest of the Amazonian 

 monkeys in stature, but is excelled in bulk 

 by the " Barrigudo " (Lagothrix hum- 

 loldtii) of the Upper Amazons. It occurs 

 throughout the lowlands of the Lower and 

 Upper Amazons; but does not range to the 

 south beyond the limits of the river plains. 

 At that point an allied species, the white- 

 whiskered Coaita (Ateles marginatus), 

 takes its place. The Coaitas are called by 

 zoologists spider-monkeys, on account of 

 the length and slenderness of their body 

 and limbs. In these apes the tail, as a 

 prehensile organ, reaches its highest de- 

 gree of perfection; and on this account it 

 would, perhaps, be correct to consider the 

 Coaitas as the extreme development of the 

 American type of apes. As far as we know, 

 from living and fossil species, the New 

 World has progressed no farther than the 

 Coaita toward the production of a higher 

 form of the Quadrumanous order. The 

 tendency of nature here has been, to all ap- 

 pearance, simply to perfect those organs 

 which adapt the species more and more 



