60 



On the Habits of Ants. 



of the ants belonging to this nest, under these circumstances. It ! 

 seemed desirable however to try also other communities. I selected 

 therefore two other nests. One was a community of Polyergus 

 rufescens, in which the majority of the slaves were Formica fusca. .j 

 Close to where the ants of this nest came to feed, I placed, as before, ! 

 two small bottles, closed in the same way : one containing two slave ( 

 ants from the nest; the other two strangers. These ants however j 

 behaved quite unlike the preceding, for they took no notice of either 

 bottle, and showed no sign either of affection or hatred. One is 

 almost tempted to surmise that the warlike spirit of these ants was j 

 broken by slavery. 



The other nest which I tried— also a community of Formica fusca \ 

 — behaved exactly like the first. They took no notice of the bottle j 

 containing the friends, but clustered round and endeavoured to force 

 their way into that containing the strangers. 



It seems therefore that in these curious insects hatred is a stronger , 

 passion than affection. 



From the observations of Sprengel there could of course be little, 

 if any, doubt that bees are capable of distinguishing colors ; but I { J 

 have in my previous papers, read before the Linnean Society, re- | \ 

 corded some experiments which put the matter beyond a doubt, j I 

 Under these circumstances, I have been naturally anxious to ascertain I 

 if possible whether the same is the case with ants. I have however I 

 experienced more difficulty in doing so, because ants find their food 

 so much more by smell than by sight. 



I tried, for instance, placing some food at the bottom of a pillar t ' 

 of colored paper, and then moving both the pillar and the food, j 

 The pillar however did not seem to help the ant at all to find her 

 way to the food. I then placed the food on the top of a rod of wood 

 3 inches high, and when the ant knew her way perfectly well to the 

 food, so that she went quite straight backwards and forwards to the 

 nest, I found that if I moved the pillar of wood only 6 inches, the 

 ant was quite bewildered, and wandered about, backwards and for- I 

 wards, round and round, and at last only found the pillar as it were H 

 accidentally, though the board on which the pillar was placed was I 

 only 18 inches by VI, and the pillar was 8 inches high. Comparing j 



