Insects. 3771 



a hundred beautiful skeletons of small quadrupeds and birds, reptiles 

 and fishes, the greater part of which are now in the collection of the 

 British Museum. In the course of these experiments he made the 

 following further observations on their habits. 



They will not touch anything tainted, and prefer animals in the 

 blood to such as have been previously cleaned. The plan which Mr. 

 Daniell found to answer best was to take the object quite fresh, to 

 skin it, extract the viscera, and cut off as much as possible of the 

 flesh, and then to place it in the box. It is seldom that a skeleton is 

 so entirely cleaned as to require no further preparation ; but the 

 smaller skeletons when taken quite fresh require only a very little sub- 

 sequent maceration to complete the process, the more delicate and 

 difficult portions, such as the cranium and vertebrae, being almost al- 

 ways cleaned in preference to the ribs and limbs ; and even those 

 portions of muscle which are not removed by the ants are generally 

 so much detached by them, that a slight brushing or two after well 

 soaking the object suffices to remove them. One of the great advan- 

 tages of this mode of preparing small skeletons was found to consist 

 in their perfectly preserving their natural size, the ants seldom de- 

 stroying the ligaments, and the bones consequently not requiring 

 wires for their attachment, which in some of the more minute skele- 

 tons it would be difficult if not impossible to apply. The labourers 

 require, however, careful watching, as after having eaten the muscles, 

 they occasionally destroy the ligaments, and even commence carrying 

 off the smaller bones ; a smart tap on the box is sufficient to drive 

 them away from the object, on which they all immediately move off 

 in a regular line to whichsoever opening they have entered at, leaving 

 the skeleton free. When the objects are too large, they quit them 

 suddenly after devouring what they think proper, so that sometimes 

 where overnight thousands might have been seen at work, in the 

 morning not one is to be found in the box ; and nothing is gained by 

 re-moistening the object, for they appear never again to touch any- 

 thing which they have once abandoned. In the summer their vitality 

 is great ; from the cavities of a skeleton that had been three days im- 

 mersed in water and afterwards placed in the sun, several ants were 

 seen to emerge, and to become as lively as ever. But in winter, ex- 

 posure to cold air, or immersion in water, when the thermometer is 

 below the freezing-point, produces instant death, subsequent expo- 

 sure to warmth failing, in these circumstances, to revive them. Their 

 sense of smell appears to be very acute ; if the finger be drawn across 

 one of their tracks, multitudes rapidly congregate about the spot, 



