78 ANTS AND ANT LIFE. 



following words, applicable to the building of all ants with- 

 out distinction : 



" I am convinced by this and a thousand similar observa- 

 tions, that each ant builds for itself independently of its 

 companions. The first which conceives an easily executed 

 plan at once lays the foundations. The others have only to 

 continue what the first began, and learn by looking at the 

 commenced work. But all understand how to improve their 

 work according to circumstances ; they have no other cutting 

 instruments than their teeth, no other guide than their 

 feelers, and no other trowels than their forefeet, of which, 

 last they make use in really marvellous fashion to separate 

 the damp earth and to make it firm. Herein consist their 

 mechanical and material appliances ! They must therefore, 

 if they follow a merely mechanical instinct, pursue a geo- 

 metrical and unchangeable plan with slavish exactitude, 

 build the same walls, and make their arched roofs of the 

 same size ; we should then be neither astonished nor sur- 

 prised at their industry. But to build this irregular dome, 

 standing on so many stories, to divide conveniently the 

 therein contained rooms, to choose the best season for each 

 task, especially to direct their work according to tem- 

 porary circumstances, to utilise occasional advantages, 

 and to judge between the suitability of this or of that 

 operation, for all this capacities are required which approach 

 real intelligence, and which prove that this creature does 

 not act like an automaton, but like a being which is able to 

 grasp the object of its work." 



In what concerns the various methods of building among 

 ants, Forel distinguishes not less than six or seven different 

 species, accordingly as the nests are dug or built, or are made 

 under flat stones or in wood and tree-trunks, under bark, 

 or in walls and cliffs, or in houses, etc. Among these 

 different species there may be recognised a great many 

 diversities and transitions, as well as resemblances of 

 building. The most frequent architectural style is that in 

 damp earth, already described, which is worked with jaws 

 and feet. When the work has to be done in dry earth or 

 sand, they scrape this up with their forefeet, and throw it 

 between their raised and spread-out hindlegs, in the same 

 way as dogs do in scratching. If the forelegs or their ex- 

 tremities are cut away, they can, as we have already said, 



