ANTS AND ANT LIFE. 83 



part of that comprised within the limits of an ordinary nest, 

 while the number of workers was probably more than a 

 third of the total number belonging to the colony. If, 

 therefore, but one or two entrances had been pierced in the 

 soil, the workers would have been for ever running against 

 one another, and a great number could never have got below 

 to help in the all-important task of preparing passages and 

 chambers for the accommodation of the larvas. These 

 numerous and funnel-shaped entrances admitted of the 

 simultaneous descent and ascent of large numbers of ants, 

 and the work progressed with proportionate rapidity. After 

 a few days only three entrances, and eventually only one 

 remained open. Yet for weeks this active work went on, 

 and the ants brought up such quantities of earth from below 

 that it became difficult to prevent them from choking up 

 the bottle containing their water, which they repeatedly 

 buried up to the neck. On January 10th the surface of the 

 earth was raised from an inch and a-half at its lowest to 

 three inches at its highest point above its original level, and 

 this bulk of excavated earth represented the amount of 

 space contained in their galleries and chambers constructed 

 below. It was not, however, until nineteen days after their 

 capture that the ants began to form systematic trains to 

 carry down the seeds which I placed for them on the sur- 

 face, and I suppose that they had required this time for the 

 construction and consolidation of the granary chambers." 



Moggridge also observed on this occasion the fashion in 

 which the ants took away rootlets which pierced through 

 their galleries, belonging to seedlings growing on the surface 

 of the nest. Two ants worked together at this task, one of 

 which pulled at the free ends of the root, while the other 

 gnawed at the fibres where the strain was greatest, until the 

 root broke. There are many other well-known instances of 

 ! iniilar acts, mechanical and yet betraying a high degree of 

 reflective power or calculative ability on the part of one or 

 more ants, working together for the performance of a diffi- 

 cult task. Bingley relates (" Animal Biography," 6th ed., 

 London, 1824, iv., p. 173,) how a "gentleman from Cam- 

 bridge one day remarked an ant dragging along what, with 

 respect to its strength, might be denominated a piece of 

 timber. Others were severally employed, each in its own 

 way. Presently this little creature came to an ascent, where 



