ANTS CARRIER-PIGEONS. 



would who take each other by the hand. All the ants who 

 are thus addressed are immediately observed to change their 

 route if they were moving, and to abandon their occupation if 

 they were at work, and to return with those from whom they 

 received the information, to the scene of the disaster, which is 

 soon surrounded by thousands of these insects, thus brought from 

 a distance. 



121. In the wars which the population of two neighbouring ant- 

 hills wage with each other, scouts and outposts precede the main 

 body of the enemy, who often return to the leaders, giving them 

 information, the consequence of which is, a total change in the 

 order of march. In cases where these conflicts become doubtful, 

 and that an army finds itself in danger of defeat, the leaders are 

 often seen to detach aides-de-camp, or orderly officers, who 

 return in all haste to their ant-hill, to bring up reinforcements, 

 which assemble without delay, and march to join the main body 

 of the army. 



122. Large as the range of action is, which admits of explanation 

 either by intelligence or instinct, or by the combination of both 

 these faculties, some acts still remain of an extraordinary cha- 

 racter which cannot be thus explained, and which would seem 

 to imply the existence of some faculty in certain species of inferior 

 animals of which man is totally destitute. 



123. Among these may be mentioned the curious power with 

 which certain birds, such as pigeons and swallows, are endowed ; 

 who, after being transported in close boxes to many hundred miles 

 from their nest, take flight upon being liberated, and without the 

 least hesitation direct their course towards the place from which 

 they had been taken, with a precision as unerring as if it were 

 actually within their view. In the case of dogs, and other 

 mammifers, who having been brought to a great distance from 

 home find their way back, the act is explained by the extreme 

 delicacy of their sense of smell ; but no such explanation will be 

 admissible in the case of carrier-pigeons, who, having been brought, 

 for example, from London to Berlin, and being liberated at the 

 latter city, instantly direct their course back to the former, flying 

 over the great circle of the earth which joins the two places. 

 We are not aware that any attempt has been made to refer this 

 class of facts to any recognised faculty. 



124. Closely connected with instinct and intelligence is the 

 capability of animals to be tamed and domesticated. 



Naturalists agree generally that the animals which are domes- 

 ticated with greatest facility are those which in the wild state 

 live in troops or societies. To this there is scarcely a well-esta- 

 blished exception. The cat and the pig are apparent exceptions, 



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