16 Wild Life in a Southern County. 
amount of interference with the traffic. Near the hole 
into which the ants plunged under the border, and on 
the edge of the bank, so to say, the path they had worn 
was not visible—the ground was hard and did not take 
impression ; and there, losing the guidance of the. 
groove, they often made mistakes. Instead of hitting 
the right hole, many of them missed it and entered 
other holes left by boring worms, and after a short 
time reappeared to search again, till, finding the 
cavern, they hastily plunged into it. This was par- 
ticularly the case when a solitary insect came along. 
Therefore it would seem that the ant works its way 
tentatively, and, observing where it fails, tries another 
place and succeeds, 
