58 Ants. 



VIII. 



i. I have made a number of experiments on the 

 power of smell possessed by ants. I dipped 

 camel's-hair brushes into peppermint-water, essence 

 of cloves, lavender-water, and other strong scents, 

 and suspended them about a quarter of an inch 

 above the strips of paper along which the ants were 

 passing in the experiments above recorded. Under 

 these circumstances, while some of the ants passed 

 on without taking any notice, others stopped when 

 they came close to the pencil, and, evidently per- 

 ceiving the smell, turned back. Soon, however, 

 they returned and passed the scented pencil. After 

 doing this two or three times they generally took 

 no further notice of the scent. This experiment 

 left no doubt on my mind ; still, to make the matter 

 even more clear, I experimented with ants placed 

 on an isolated strip of paper. Over the paper, and 

 at such a distance as almost, but not quite, to touch 

 any ant which passed under it, I again suspended 

 a camel's-hair brush, dipped in assafcetida, lavender- 

 water, peppermint-water, essence of cloves, and 

 other scents. In these experiments the results were 

 very marked ; and no one who watched the 

 behaviour of the ants under these circumstances 



