ANIMAL INTELLIGENCE. 
44 
nationality. New nests often spring up as offshoots from 
the older ones, and thus a nation of towns gradually 
spreads to an immense circumference around the original 
centre. Forel describes a colony of F. exsecta which 
comprised more than two hundred nests, and covered a 
space of nearly two hundred square metres. ‘All the 
members of such a colony, even those from the further- 
most nest, recognise each other and admit no stranger.’ 
Similarly, MacCook describes an ‘ant town 5 in the 
Alleghany Mountains of North America (‘ Trans. Amer. 
Entom. Soc., 5 Nov. 1877) which was inhabited by F. exsec- 
toides. It consists of 1,600 to 1,700 nests, which rise in 
cones to a height of from two to five feet. The ground 
below is riddled in every direction with subterranean 
passages of communication. The inhabitants are all on the 
most friendly terms, so that if any one nest is injured it 
is repaired by their united forces. 
It remains to be added in connection with this subject 
that the recognition is not automatically invariable, but 
when ‘ ants are removed from a nest in the pupa state, 
tended by strangers, and then restored, some at least of 
their relatives are certainly puzzled, and in many cases 
doubt their claims to consanguinity. I say some, because 
while strangers under the circumstances would have been 
immediately attacked, these ants were in every case 
amicably received by the majority of the colony, and it was 
sometimes several hours before they came across one who 
did not recognise them. 5 
It may also be added that Lasius fiavus behaves 
towards strangers quite differently and much more hos- 
pitably than is the case with L. niger. The stranger 
shows no alarm, but, on the contrary, will voluntarily 
enter the strange nest, and she is there received with 
kindness ; although from the attention she excites, and 
the numerous communications which take place between 
her and her new friends, Sir John w T as ‘ satisfied that they 
knew she w T as not one of themselves. . . . Very different is 
the behaviour of L. niger under similar circumstances. I 
tried the same experiment with them. There wxis no 
communications with the antennae, there was no cleaning, 
