172 EVIDENCE OF COMMUNICATION. 
fusca are put in a box, and in one corner a dark place 
of retreat is provided for them with some earth, one soon 
finds her way to it. She then comes out again, and going 
up to one of the others, takes her by the jaws. The 
second ant then rolls herself into a heap, and is carried 
off to the place of shelter. They then both repeat the 
same manceuvre with other ants, and so on until all their 
companions are collected together. Now it seems to 
me difficult to imagine that so slow a course would be 
adopted if they possessed any considerable power of 
descriptive communication. 
On the other hand, there can, I think, be no doubt 
that they do possess some power of the kind. 
This seems to me clearly shown by the following 
observations. In order, if possible, to determine 
whether the ants in question were brought to the 
larvee, or whether they came casually, I tried (1875) 
the following experiments: I took three tapes, each 
about 2 feet 6 inches long, and arranged them 
parallel to one another and about 6 inches apart. 
One end of each I attached to one of my nests 
(ZL. niger), and at the other end I placed a small 
glass. In the glass at the end of one tape I placed a 
considerable number (300 to 600) of larve. In the 
second I put two or three larve only; in the third 
none at all, The object of the last was to see whether 
many ants would come to the glasses under such cir- 
cumstances by mere accident; and I may at once say 
that but few did so. I then took two ants and 
