54 
ANIMAL INTELLIGENCE. 
The result showed that the ants were not able thus to call 
to one another from a distance. 
As additional proof of the general fact that at all 
events some ants have the power of communicating infor- 
mation to one another, it will be enough here to quote an 
exceedingly interesting observation of the distinguished 
geologist Hague. The quotations are taken from 
his letters written to Mr. Darwin, and published in 
Nature : 1 — 
On the mantelshelf of our sitting-room my wife has the 
habit of keeping fresh flowers. A vase stands at each end, and 
near the middle a small tumbler, usually filled with violets. 
Some time ago I noticed a pile of very small red ants on the wall 
above the left-hand vase, passing upward and downward be- 
tween the mantelshelf and a small hole near the ceiling, at a 
point where a picture nail had been driven. The ants, when 
first observed, were not very numerous, but gradually increased 
in number, until on some days the little creatures formed an 
almost unbroken procession, issuing from the hole at the nail, 
descending the wall, climbing the vase directly below the nail, 
satisfying their desire for water or perfume, and then returning. 
The other vase and tumbler were not visited at that time. 
As I was just then recovering from a long illness it hap- 
pened that I was confined to the house, and spent my days in the 
room where the operations of these insects attracted my atten- 
tion. Their presence caused me some annoyance, but I knew of 
no effective means of getting rid of them. Tor several days in 
succession I frequently brushed the ants in great numbers from 
the wall down to the floor ; bat as they were not killed the re- 
sult was that they soon formed a colony in the wall at the base 
of the mantel, ascending thence to the shelf, so that before long 
the vase was attacked from above and below. 
One day I observed a number of ants, perhaps thirty or 
forty, on the shelf at the foot of the vase. Thinking to kill 
them, I struck them lightly with the end of my finger, killing 
some and disabling the rest. The effect of this was immediate 
and unexpected. As soon as those ants which were approach- 
ing arrived near to where their fellows lay dead and suffering, 
they turned and fled with all possible haste. In half an hour 
the wall above the mantelshelf was cleared of ants. 
During the space of an hour or two the colony from below 
1 Vol. vii. pp. 443-4. 
