118 FIELD AND HEDGEROW. 
incapable of running in a straight line. At first their 
motions searching about suggested the action of a pack 
of hounds making a cast ; hounds, however, would have 
very soon gone forward and so picked up the trail. 
If I may make a guess at the cause of this singular 
confusion, I think I should attribute it to some peculiarity 
in the brain of the ant, or else to some consideration of 
which we are ignorant, but which weighs with ants, and 
not to any absence of the physical senses. Because they 
do not do as we should do under similar circumstances 
is no proof that they do not possess the power to hear 
and see. Experiments, for instance, have been made 
with bees to find out if they have any sense of hearing, 
by shouting close to a bee, drawing discordant notes on 
the violin, striking pieces of metal together, and so on, 
to all of which the bee remained indifferent. What else 
could she do? Neither of these sounds hurt if she heard 
them, nor seemed to threaten danger; they simply con- 
veyed no impression at all to her mind. Observe your 
favourite pussy curled up in the arm-chair at such time 
as she knows the dishes have been cleared away, and 
there is no more chance of wheedling a titbit from you. 
You may play the piano, or the violin, or knock witha 
hammer, or shout your loudest, she will take no notice, 
no more than if she actually had no ears at all. Are 
you, therefore, to conclude she does not hear you? As 
‘well conclude that people do not hear the thunder 
because they do not shout in answer to it. Such noises 
simply do not concern her, and she takes no notice. 
Now, though her eyes be closed, let a strange dog run 
in, and at the light pad pad of his feet, scarcely audible 
on the carpet, she is up in a moment, blazing with wrath. 
That is a sound that interests her. So, too, perhaps, _ 
it may be with ants and bees, who may hear and see, 
