i88o.] 
723 
Analyses of Books. 
lery is sunken very far a fourth and a fifth join in the digging. 
There has been no communication that I can observe to secure 
this assistance, nothing like a call to her comrades by the original 
worker, nor by any of her successors. Her movement, if I may 
so speak, is contagious. Her excitement has been communi- 
cated by some imperceptible bond of sympathy to others of the 
colony who have joined her in the work, as if urged by some 
uncontrollable instindt. The excitement, however, has not cap- 
tured all the little community. I believe that the digging is 
conducted by relays. The excitement which carries individuals 
into the trenches seizes all in turn, is intermitted and repeated 
as long as there is any necessity, or opportunity for exertion.” 
It is evident that the industry of the working ants cannot be 
traced to the two causes which, according to some authors, un- 
derlie all animal activity, viz., hunger and the sexual appetite. 
Mr. McCook notices that ants — differing in this respedt from 
our domestic vertebrates — never quarrel over their supply of 
food. There is none of the selfishness and bullying which is 
always witnessed when poultry, swine, or cows, are being fed. 
As regards the intelligence of these ants the following state- 
ments are not without value. A young farm labourer informed 
Mr. McCook that his employer had tried to poison the Agricul- 
tural. Arsenic spread upon bread was put in their way. This 
killed those that partook of it, but they soon abandoned the 
bread. The arsenic was then mixed with meal and put into 
their nests, but they separated the poison and carried away the 
meal. It was then mixed with treacle, but here again, after a 
few had been poisoned, the bait was left untouched. 
It is further established beyond doubt that ants have funeral 
regulations. “ All species whose manners I have closely ob- 
served are quite alike in their mode of caring for their own dead, 
and for the dry carcasses of aliens. The former they appear to 
treat with some degree of reverence, at least to the extent of 
giving them a sort of sepulture without feeding upon them. The 
latter, after having exhausted the juices of the body, they usually 
deposit together in some spot removed from the nest. 
According to Mrs. Treat, Formica sanguinea , a slave holding 
species, never buries its own dead along with those of the slaves, 
Formica fusca. 
The Agricultural Ant is described as not wantonly aggressive, 
unlike, e.g., the fire-ants of Aveyros, of which Mr. Bates has 
given such a graphic account. Their sting, however, when 
inflidted, is very severe. The first symptom is a sharp pain 
resembling the sting of a bee. “ Then followed twice, at short 
intervals, a nervous chilling sensation which seemed to sweep 
upwards, and was felt quite sensibly around the roots of the 
hair. Then followed a steady, heavy pain, about the wound, 
which continued from three hours more or less severely, a slight 
