EXPERIMENT WITH AN ATTA. 177 
pilosa, belonging to a nest which I had brought back 
with me from Algeria. She was out hunting about, 
six feet from home, and I placed before her a large 
dead bluebottle fly, which she at once began to drag 
to the nest. I then pinned the fly to a piece of cork, 
in a small box, so that no ant could see the fly until 
she had climbed up the side of the box. The ant 
struggled, of course in vain, to move the fly. She 
pulled first in one direction and then in another, but, 
finding her efforts fruitless, she at length started off back 
to the nest empty-handed. At this time there were 
no ants coming.out of the nest. Probably there were 
some few others out hunting, but for at least a quarter 
of an hour no ant had left the nest. My ant entered 
the nest, but did not remain there; in less than a 
minute she emerged accompanied by 7 friends. I 
never saw so many come out of that nest together 
before. In her excitement the first ant soon distanced 
her companions, who took the matter with much more 
sang-froid, and had all the appearance of having come 
out reluctantly, or as if they had been asleep and were 
only half awake. The first ant ran on ahead, going 
straight to the fly. The others followed slowly and 
with many meanderings; so slowly, indeed, that for 
twenty minutes the first ant was alone at the fly, 
trying in every way to move it. Finding this still 
impossible, she again returned to the nest, not chancing 
to meet any of her friends by the way. Again she 
emerged in less than a minute with 8 friends, and 
