Ants. 51 



the same way fed several ants on her way towards 

 the nest ; but this time five of those so fed returned 

 with her to the honey. In due course these five 

 would no doubt have brought others, and so the 

 number at the honey would have increased. 



5. Again, one rather cold day, when but few ants 

 were out, I selected a specimen of an ant, belong- 

 ing to a nest which I had brought back with me from 

 Algeria. She was out hunting about 6 feet from 

 home, and I placed before her a large dead blue- 

 bottle fly, which she at once began to drag to the 

 nest. I then pinned the fly to a piece of cork, in a 

 small box, so that no ant could see the fly until 

 she had climbed up the side of the box. The ant 

 struggled, of course in vain, to move the fly. She 

 pulled first in one direction and then in another, 

 but, finding her efforts fruitless, she at length 

 started off back to the nest empty-handed. At 

 this time there were no ants coming out of the 

 nest. Probably there were some few others out 

 hunting, but for at least a quarter of an hour no 

 ant had left the nest. My ant entered the nest, 

 but did not remain there ; in less than a minute 

 she emerged accompanied by seven friends. I 

 never saw so many come out of that nest together 

 before. In her excitement the first ant soon dis- 

 tanced her companions, who took the matter much 

 more coolly, and had all the appearance of having 

 come out reluctantly, or as if they had been asleep 

 and were only half awake. The first ant ran on 



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