564 INSTINCT OF INSECTS. 
wall sufficient to prevent their reaching it, climbed up the wall to the height 
of about a foot above its level, and then let themselves fall so as to alight 
on the table, as Colonel Sykes himself witnessed with equal surprise and 
admiration.!. Here it is obvious that it was only after experience had 
shown the ants the inefficacy, in the altered position of the table, of their 
former modes of attacking the sweetmeats, that they adopted this novel 
and ingenious way of getting access to them, which, whether we refer it to 
reason or a variation of instinct, is equally remarkable. 
Insects, in the third place, are able mutually to communicate and receive 
information, which, in whatever way effected, would be impracticable if 
they were devoid of reason. Under this head it is only necessary to refer 
ou to the endless facts in proof, furnished by almost every page of my 
etters on the history of ants and of the hive-bee. I shall therefore but 
detain you for a moment with an additional anecdote or two, especially 
with one respecting the former tribe, which is valuable from the celebrity 
of the relator. 
Dr. Franklin was of opinion that ants could communicate their ideas 
to each other ; in proof of which he related to Kalm the Swedish traveller 
the following fact. Having placed a pot containing treacle in a closet 
infested with ants, these insects found their way into it, and were feasting 
very heartily when he discovered them. “He then shook them out, and 
suspended the pot by a string from the ceiling. By chance one ant re- 
mained, which, after eating its fill, with some difficulty found its way up 
the string, and thence reaching the ceiling, escaped by the wall to its nest. 
In less than half an hour a great company of ants sallied out of their hole, 
climbed the ceiling, crept along the string into the pot, and began to eat 
again. This they continued until the treacle was all consumed, one swarm 
running up the string while another passed down.” It seems indisputable 
that the one ant had in this instance conveyed news of the booty to his 
comrades, who would not otherwise have at once directed their steps in a 
body to the only accessible route. 
A German artist, a man of strict veracity, states that in his journey 
through Italy he was an eyewitness to the following occurrence. He 
observed a species of Scarabzus (Ateuchus pilularius ?) busily engaged in 
making, for the reception of its ege, a pellet of dung, which when finished 
it rolled to the summit of a small hillock, and repeatedly suffered to tumble 
down its side, apparently for the sake of consolidating it by the earth which 
each time adhered to it. During this process the pellet unluckily fell into 
an adjoining hole, out of which all the efforts of the beetle to extricate it 
were in yain. After several ineffectual trials, the insect repaired to an 
adjoining heap of dung, and soon returned with three of his companions. 
All four now applied their united strength to the pellet, and at length suc- 
ceeded in pushing it out ; which being done, the three assistant beetles left 
the spot and returned to their own quarters.$ 
Lastly, insects are endowed with memory, which (at least in connection 
with the purposes to which it is subservient) implies some degree of reason 
1 Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond. i. 105, 
2 Kalm’s Travels in North America, i, 289, 
6 Illiger, Mag. i, 448, 
