90 
ANIMAL INTELLIGENCE. 
who had died were being treated in like manner. Back and 
forth, up and down, into every corner of the box the bearers 
wandered, the very embodiment of restlessness. For four days 
this conduct continued without any intermission. No sooner 
would a body or fragment thereof be dropped by one bearer 
than another would take it up and begin the restless circuit. 
The difficulty, I easily understood, was that there was no point 
to be found far enough removed from the living-rooms of the 
insects in which to inter these dead. Their desire to have their 
dead buried out of their sight was strong enough to keep them 
on this ceaseless round, apparently under the continuous influ- 
ence of the hope that something might turn up to give them a 
more satisfactory burial-ground. It does not appear greatly to 
the credit of their wisdom that they were so long discovering 
that they were limited to a space beyond their power to enlarge. 
When, however, this fact was finally recognised they gave their 
habit its utmost bent, and began to deposit the carcasses in the 
extreme corner of the flat, as distant as possible from the 
galleries on the terrace above. Here a little hollow was made 
in the earth, quite up against the glass, wherein a number of 
bodies were laid. Portions of bodies were thrust into the chinks 
formed in the dry sod. This flat became the permanent 
charnel-house of the colony, and here, in corners, crevices, and 
holes, for the most part out of sight, but not always so, the 
dead were deposited. But the living never seemed quite recon- 
ciled to their presence. Occasionally, restless resurrectionists 
would disentomb the dead, shift them to another spot, or start 
them once more upon their unquiet wanderings. Even after 
the establishment of this cemetery, the creatures did not seem 
able to lay away their newly deceased comrades — for there were 
occasional deaths in the formicary — without first indulging in 
this funereal promenade. 
In the formicaries established in glass jars, both of barbatus 
and crudelis , the same behaviour appeared. So great was the 
desire to get the dead outside the nest, that the bearers would 
climb up the smooth surface of the glass to the very top of the 
jar, laboriously carrying with them a dead ant. This was severe 
work, which was rarely undertaken except under the influence 
of this funereal enthusiasm. The jar was very smooth and quite 
high. Falls were frequent, but patiently the little 6 undertaker ’ 
would follow the impulse of her instinct, and try and try again. 
Finally, as in the large box, the fact of a necessity seemed to 
dawn upon the ants, and a portion of the surface opposite from 
the entrance to the galleries, and close up against the glass, was 
