126 
ANIMAL INTELLIGENCE. 
(pp. 241-2). But even this consideration does not ex- 
tenuate the stupidity of the ants which failed to heap up 
the fine earth to reach the glass cell which they were able 
to touch with their antennae. 
That the species of ants on which Sir John Lubbock 
experimented were not, however, quite destitute of intel- 
ligence is proved by the result of the following experi- 
ment : — 
I put some provisions in a shallow box with a glass top and 
a single hole in one side ; I then put some specimens of Lasius 
niger to the food, and soon a stream of ants was at work busily 
carrying supplies off to the nest. When they had got to know 
their way thoroughly, and from thirty to forty were so occupied, 
I poured some fine mould in front of the hole, so as to cover it 
to a depth of about ^ an inch. I then took out the ants which 
were actually in the box. As soon as the ants had recovered 
from the shock of this unexpected proceeding on my part, they 
began to run all round and about the box, looking for some 
other place of entrance. Finding none, however, they began 
digging down into the earth just over the hole, carrying off the 
grains of earth one by one and depositing them without any 
order all round at. a distance of from ^ to 6 inches, until they 
had excavated down to the doorway, when they again began 
carrying off the food as before. 
This experiment was several times repeated on L. niger 
and on L.flavns , always with the same result. 
Thus, then, we may conclude that the reasoning power 
of these ants, although shown by the first experiments to 
be almost nil, is shown by this experiment to be not quite 
nil ; for the attempt to meet the exigencies of the case 
by first going round the box to seek another entrance, 
before taking the labour to remove the earth from the 
known entrance, implies a certain rudimentary degree of 
adaptive capacity which belongs to the category of the 
rational. 
Another point of considerable interest, as bearing on 
t he general intelligence of ants, is one that was brought 
out as the result of a laborious series of hourly observa- 
tions, extending without intermission from 6.30 a.m. to 
10 p.m. for a period of three months. The object of these 
observations was to ascertain whether the principle of the 
