THE SENSES OF ANTS 
165 
poorer than England in species, but that the numbers of indi- 
viduals are greater than common repute will allow. That 
country, like our own, suffers from the shooting mania — a friend 
of mine staying in Indre at the same time that I skirted the 
department, saw a golden oriole shot. Probably the bird- 
catcher is a greater sinner still. Our only hope, here and abroad, 
is with the young. Till the lads learn to look upon destruction 
of nests and eggs as a mean act, there will be little accomplished. 
The common which I know best, close to London, loses, I should 
estimate, three-fourths of its nests by wanton destruction. On 
Whit Monday of this year broken birds’ eggs could be seen 
floating in the ornamental waters. Bird-protection, like charily, 
begins at home. 
Walter Johnson. 
THE SENSES OF ANTS AS REGARDS HEAT AND 
' LIGHT. 
HE following experiments conducted during the last two 
years will, I think, throw some light on the subject of 
ants’ feelings towards heat and light. It has been 
clearly proved by Lord Avebury and others that ants 
possess a sense of colour, that they can distinguish all the colours 
we see, and that they have a peculiar aversion to the ultra- 
violet rays of the spectrum. Moreover, it has been shown that 
their dislike of the rays of the spectrum increases from the ultra- 
red to the ultra-violet. The questions now to be answered are, 
how do the ultra-violet and the ultra-red rays affect the ants ? 
(1) Do they appear to the ants as true light rays? Are 
they, as far as the ants are concerned, distinct colours, colours 
which may be as different from those we know as red is from 
blue ? 
(2) Are the ants affected by them chemically ? This sugges- 
tion is supported by the fact that the chemical rays increase in 
number from the ultra-red, where there are practically none, to 
the ultra-violet, where they are comparatively numerous. Also 
the formic acid which is secreted by most ants, being an unstable 
compound, might possibly be decomposed by the chemical rays 
transmitted through the violet end of the spectrum. 
(3) Are the ants susceptible to the slight range of tempera- 
ture between the different portions of the spectrum ? An exami- 
nation of the accompanying diagram shows that the maximum 
amount of heat is transmitted in the ultra-red, and that here no 
luminous rays or chemical rays are transmitted. Secondly, the 
luminous rays are seen to be at their maximum intensity between 
the orange and yellow, where few heat rays and practically no 
chemical rays are transmitted. But the chemical rays, it is 
noticed, are at their maximum in the ultra-violet, where there 
are no- luminous rays and extremely few heat rays. 
