1 877.] 
Our Six-footed Rivals , 
445 
so likewise. I scraped with my knife a small portion of the 
clay on the trail, and the ants were completely at fault for 
a time which way to go. Those ascending and those 
descending stopped at the scraped portion, and made short 
circuits until they hit the scented trail again, when all their 
hesitation vanished, and they ran up and down it with the 
greatest confidence.” 
That among groups like the Ecitons, in which the sense 
of sight is imperfedt or even totally wanting, enhanced 
delicacy of scent and touch must be required in compensa- 
tion may be taken as self-evident. With the language of 
ants, and especially with a possible scent-language, is con- 
nected the faculty by means of which denizens of the same 
city recognise each other under circumstances of great 
difficulty. In the battles which take place between two 
nations of the same species, how, save by scent, do the tiny 
warriors distinguish friend from foe ? We are told by some 
older observers that if an ant is taken from the nest, and 
restored after the lapse of several months, it is at once re- 
ceived by its companions and caressed, whilst a stranger 
ant introduced at the same time is rejected, and generally 
killed. To a great extent this has been confirmed by recent 
investigators. The returned exile was not indeed caressed, 
but was quietly allowed to enter the nest, whilst a stranger 
was at once greeted with hostile demonstrations. It has 
been maintained that this power of recognition is destroyed 
by water, and that ants will treat a comrade as an enemy 
if he has received a drenching. This, however, is evidently 
a mistake. To prevent rain from penetrating into the nests 
of the agricultural ant the guards block up the doorways 
with their bodies, and are often drowned at their posts. 
But their companions are not thereby prevented from 
recognising them, as they try to bring the dead bodies to 
life. * 
Even more wonderful than the mere intelligence of the 
ant is its power of organisation — the point, probably, in 
which it approaches most closely to man. Suppose that 
ants, instead of forming nations, lived like most creatures, 
merely in pairs, each endeavouring to rear a young brood, 
who when mature would enter upon a similarly isolated 
career. Let them be as brave, as intelligent, and as strong 
as they now are, still how humble and insecure would be 
their position ! Against the attacks of the giant spiders, 
centipedes, hornets, and wasps of warm climates they could 
make no effectual resistance. Prey which in their present 
condition they easily secure would escape them, or would 
