ANTS — ELAY AND LEISUKE. 87 
insect friends are thus in possession of a modified sort of 
Emmetonian Turkish bath. 
The acrobatic skill of these ants, which has often furnished 
me amusement, and which I shall yet further illustrate, was 
fully shown one morning in these offices of ablution. The for- 
micary was taken from the study, where the air had become 
chilled, and placed in an adjoining chamber upon the hearth, 
before an open-grate fire. The genial warmth was soon diffused 
throughout the nest, and aroused its occupants to unusual ac- 
tivity. A tuft of grass in the centre of the box was presently 
covered with them. They climbed to the very top of the spires, 
turned round and round, hanging by their paws, not unlike 
gymnasts performing upon a turning-bar. They hung or clung 
in various positions, grasping the grass blade with the third and 
fourth pairs of legs, which were spread out at length, cleansing 
their heads with the fore-legs or bending underneath to comb 
and lick the abdomen. Among these ants were several pairs, 
in one case a triplet, engaged in the cleansing operation just 
described. The cleanser clung to the grass, having a fore-leg on 
one side and a hind leg on the other side of the stem, stretched 
out at full length, while the cleansed hung in a like position 
below, and reached over and up, submitting herself to the 
pleasant process. As the progress of the act required a change 
of posture on the part of both insects, it was made with the 
utmost agility. 
Similarly, Bates thus describes the cleansing process in 
another genus of ants (Ecitons ): — • 
Here and there an ant was seen stretching forth first one 
leg and then another, to be brushed and washed by one or more 
of its comrades, who performed the task by passing the limb 
between the jaws and tongue, finishing by giving the antennae a 
friendly wipe. 
Habits of Play and Leisure . — The life of ants is not 
all work, or, at least, is not so in ail species ; for in some 
species, at any rate, periods of recreation are habitually 
indulged in, 
Buchner if Greistesleben der Thiere,’ p. 163) gives the 
following abstract of Huber’s celebrated observations in 
this connection : — - 
It was of the pratensis that Huber wrote the observations 
touching its gymnastic sports which became so famous. He 
