DWELLINGS. 217 



ordains the line of conduct under every circumstance, 

 and impels each individual to act so that his efforts 

 are naturally combined and harmonised with those of 

 his neighbours in the workshop. One soon perceives 

 when observing an ant-hill that any individual insect 

 follows, when working, a personal idea which it has 

 conceived, and which it realises without troubling 

 itself about the others. Often these latter are exe- 

 cuting a quite contradictory plan. It is rather an 

 anarchistic republic. Happily Ants are not obstinate, 

 and when they see the idea of one of them disen- 

 gaging itself from the labour commenced, they are 

 content to abandon their own less satisfactory idea 

 and to collaborate in the other's work. They are 

 able, for the rest, to concert plans ; the movements of 

 their antennae are a very complicated language contain- 

 ing many expressions, and the worker who desires the 

 acceptance of his own point of view is not sparing in 

 their use.^ It sometimes happens that his efforts are 

 vain, and that his companions manoeuvre to thwart 

 his schemes. In the presence of such resistance those 

 who are determined to obtain the adoption of their 

 own plans destroy the labours of their opponents ; 

 fierce struggles ensue, and here it is the strongest who 

 becomes the architect-general. 



The Formica fusca constructs its nest of plastered 

 earth. The different superimposed storeys have 

 been added one by one to the upper part of the old 

 dwelling when the latter became too small for the 



^ For a discussion of the methods of communication among Ants, 

 tending to the conclusion that these methods "almost amount to 

 language," see LuLbock's Ants, Bees, and Wasps, chap. vi. And for 

 a general discussion of language among animals, see Alix, Vesprit de 

 nos BHes, pp. 331-367. 



