The JVaturaUsts' Companion. 
Some Stories About Ants. 
BY W. R. LIGHTON, CRESTON, IOWA. 
As much as ants have been studied 
and as much as has been written concern¬ 
ing them by the world’s closest observers 
and greatest naturalists, there sti 11 remains 
something to be told. 
Wonderful as the physical charadferis¬ 
tics are, still more wonderful are the 
social and mental tendencies, and it is 
with these portions of their history that 
my stories have to do. 
Many of those who have written of 
their observations,—notably. Sir John 
Lubbock—are led to anirounce that al¬ 
though the ant is endowed with a really 
remarkable degree of intelligence, this 
has been greatly exagerated in the pop¬ 
ular mind, and in Lubbock’s work, 
‘b\nts. Bees and Wasps,” there are col- 
ledted together very many of the author’s 
experiments and experiences which are 
given in support of his opinion. 
Wide and general reading and corres¬ 
pondence and close personal attention 
to our little friends themselves has not, 
I must confess, in any measure upset this 
idea of their ability in my mind. Upon 
the contrary, as summer after summer 
passes, and fadt is added to fadf in my 
colledtion of notes, I find myself becom¬ 
ing moie and more persuaded that my 
belief is well founded and that Sir John’s 
reasoning and assumptions aie, to a con¬ 
siderable extent, unwarranted and erro¬ 
neous. I have upon foot a series of ex- 
})eriments suggested last summer, the 
result of which I hope to be able to make 
known before the elapse of another year. 
Three years ago the garden around 
my home was especia^’y prolific with the 
small domes of the red gaiden-ant (which 
is our most common species here) and 
one morning, stretched at full length 
upon the ground amongst these domi¬ 
ciles, magnifying glass in hand, I saw a 
display of intelligence which was, I 
think, most convincing. 
One of the working ants of a certain 
colony was out upon a prospecting and 
foraging expedition, poking and prying 
into every hole and corner, under every 
grass blade and clover leaf in search of 
provender or a fight—it didn’t ap])ear 
to care much which—when it ran fairly 
against the dead body of a small black 
ground-beetle of about ten times its own 
weight, as I should judge. 
This discovery appeared to excite the 
little prospector immensely, for it de¬ 
scribed a series of eccentric circles very 
rapidly around the beetle, waving its 
antennae wildly in the, air, and then sud¬ 
denly, as through inspiration, it seized 
hold of one of the legs of the beetle with 
its strong little jaws^ and started to 
struggle courageously back to its nest 
with its heavy and unwieldy load. 
It was a by no means easy task, but 
the persevering energy of the little worker 
told, and at length the nest was reached, 
but upon attempting to convey the prize 
inside it was found to be a physical im¬ 
possibility because of the rigidly out¬ 
spread legs. Here was a pretty situation, 
to be sure, and the little imp appeared 
to be utterly confounded and perplexed, 
but with dauntless and truly American 
spirit it soon set to work as though 
bound to overcome any and all obstacles. 
It went just inside of the opening of the 
hill and pulled, then came outside and 
pushed, twisting and turning this way 
and that, straining every muscle to the 
highest tension, but it was of no use, the 
legs would not yield. 
^It is stated that an ant can carry fif¬ 
teen times its own weight. 
