1877J 
Our Six-footed Rivals. 
44 1 
fails to draw an inference — very obvious, in our view— -or to 
adopt some very simple expedient we do not deny, and that 
their conduct hence seems strangely chequered we admit. 
What, e.g. f can seem more inconsistent than the following 
cases ? Sir John Lubbock, to test the intelligence of ants, 
placed a strip of paper so as to serve as a bridge or ladder 
for some ants which were carrying their pupae by a very 
roundabout away. The slip was, however, purposely left 
short of its destination by some small fraction of an inch. 
It would have been very easy for the ants either to have 
dropped themselves and their burden down this short dis- 
tance, or to have handed the pupae to the other ants below, 
or to have piled up a small amount of earth from below so 
as to meet the slip of paper, and thus make the descending 
road continuous. They adopted, however, none of these 
expedients, but continued to travel the roundabout way. 
On the other hand, Mr. Tennant tells us that Formica 
smaragdina, in forming its dwellings by cementing together 
the leaves of growing trees, adopts the following method : — 
A line of ants, standing along the edge of one leaf seize 
hold of another, and bring its margin in contact with the 
one on which they are posted. They then hold both to- 
gether with their mandibles, whilst their companions glue 
them fast with a kind of adhesive paper which they prepare. 
If the two leaves are so far apart that a single ant cannot 
reach from one to another, they form chains with their 
bodies to span over the gap. The same author also informs 
us that certain Ceylonese ants, when carrying sand or dry 
earth for the construction of their nests, glue several grains 
together so as to form a lump as large as they can carry, 
and thus economise time and labour. . 
Mr. Belt, in his “ Naturalist in Nicaragua ” (p. 27), gives 
the following account of the manner in which the Ecitons, 
or foraging ants of Central and South America, deal with 
what may be called engineering difficulties : — “ I once saw 
a wide column trying to pass along a crumbling, nearly 
perpendicular slope. They would have got very slowly over 
it, and many of them would have fallen, but a number 
having secured their hold and reaching to each other re- 
mained stationary, and over them the main column passed. 
Another time they were crossing a water-course along a 
small branch, not thicker than a goose-quill. They widened 
this natural bridge to three times its width, by a number of 
ants clinging to it and to each other on each side, over 
which the column passed three or four deep ; whereas, 
except for this expedient, they would have had to pass 
