258 IMPORTANCE OF SCENT. 
thither from side to side between the nest and the 
point a, and only after very repeated efforts around the 
original site of the larve: reach, as it were accidentally, 
the object desired at B. 
Another evidence of this consists in the fact that if 
when ants (L. niger) were carrying off larve placed in a 
cup ona piece of board, I turned the board round so that 
the side which had been turned towards the nest was 
away from it, and vice versd, the ants always returned 
over the same track on the board, and, in consequence, 
directly away from home. 
If I moved the board to the other side of my 
artificial nest, the result wasthe same. Evidently they 
followed the road, not the direction. 
In order further to test how far ants are guided by 
sight and how much by scent, I tried the following ex- 
periment with Lasius niger. Some food was put out at 
the point a@ on a board measuring 20 inches by 12 (Fig. 
Fig. 18. 18), and so arranged 
f that the ants in going 
fle straight to it from the 
ri nest would reach the 
Vt board at the point }, 
i I and after passing under 
: : a paper tunnel, c, would 
a proceed between five 
pairs of wooden bricks, each 3 inches in length and 1} 
in height. When they got to know their way, they went 
quite straight along the line d eto a. The board was 
