44 Ants. 



ants which were at liberty took no notice of the 

 bottle containing their imprisoned friends. The 

 strangers in the other bottle, on the contrary, ex- 

 cited them considerably. The whole day one, 

 two, or more ants stood sentry, as it were, over the 

 bottle. In the evening no less than twelve were 

 collected round it, a larger number than usually 

 came out of the nest at any one time. The whole 

 of the next two days, in the same way, there 

 were several ants round the bottle containing the 

 strangers ; while, as far as we could see, no notice 

 whatever was taken of the friends. On the 9th 

 the ants had eaten through the muslin, and effected 

 an entrance. We did not chance to be on the 

 spot at the moment ; but as I found two ants lying 

 dead, one in the bottle and one just outside, I think 

 there can be no doubt that the strangers were 

 put to death. The friends throughout were quite 

 neglected. 



5. In one of my nests was an ant which had come 

 into the world without antenna::. Never having 

 previously met vvith such a case, I watched her 

 with great interest ; but she never appeared to leave 

 the nest. At length one day I found her wander- 

 ing about in an aimless sort of manner, and 

 apparently not knowing her way at all. After a 

 while she fell in with some specimens of the little 

 yellow ant, who directly attacked her. I at once 

 set myself to separate them ; but owing either 

 to the wounds she had received from her enemies 



