234 THE SENSE OF SMELL. 
about 4 of an inch above the strips of paper along which 
the ants were passing, in the experiments above recorded, 
Under these circumstances, while some of the ants passed 
on without taking any notice, others stopped when they 
came close to the pencil, and, evidently perceiving the 
smell, turned back. Soon, however, they returned and 
passed the scented pencil. After doing this two or 
three times, they generally took no further notice of 
the scent. This experiment left no doubt on my mind; 
still, to make the matter even more clear, I experi- 
mented with ants placed on an isolated strip of paper. 
Over the paper, and at such a distance as almost, but 
not quite, to touch any ant which passed under it, I 
again suspended a camel’s-hair brush, dipped in assa~ 
foetida, lavender-water, peppermint-water, essence of 
cloves, and other scents. In this experiment the 
results were very marked; and no one who watched 
the behaviour of the ants under these circumstances 
could have the slightest doubt as to their power of 
smell. 
I then took a large female of F. ligniperda and 
tethered her on a board by a thread as before. When 
she was quite quiet I tried her with the tuning-forks; 
but they did not disturb her in the least. I then ap- 
proached the feather of a pen very quietly, so as almost 
to touch first one and then the other of the antennz, 
which, however, did not move. I then dipped the pen 
in essence of musk and did the same; the antenna 
was slowly retracted and drawn quite back. I then 
