The Jfaturalists’ Companion. 
Again the small worker paused and 
was disposed to argue the question with 
his victim, so obstinate even in death. 
“Do you suppose 1 am going to carry 
you clear home and then abandon you 
in this way? Well, I woidt do it, you 
obstinate creature. Youbea beetle, but 
yoibre a dead one, and I’m an ant, and 
a very live one, and inside that hole you 
go.” 
I'hen a bright idea seemed to occur, 
for abandoning its attitude of perplexed 
defiance, it darted into the nest, and in 
the course of a minute or so it emerged, 
having with it, and apparently under its 
supervision, a command of six or eight 
other workers. These confeied togeth¬ 
er, ran around and around, gesticulating 
violently with their antenna, and then 
what should they do but set to work and 
bite off all of the legs of the beetle and 
bear its body into their hole amidst 
great triumph and rejoicing. 
One day soon after, I found a small 
white grub, probably about one-third of 
an inch in length, and placed it upon 
the ground near this same nest. Pretty 
soon an ant ran against it, killed it al¬ 
most instantly by a sharp bite near the 
head, and then tried to carry it back to 
the hill, but the load was too great and 
would not be moved. 
After finally, satisfying itself that its 
own efforts were unavailing, the small 
butcher abandoned the fruitless attempt 
and stalled to return to its place of abode 
to procure help. Upon the way it en¬ 
countered a fellow inhabitant of its hill, 
and each, halting, tapped the other vig¬ 
orously upon the back with its antennsp, 
seemingly in the interchange of ideas, 
for both immediately went to the grub, 
and together were able to secure it 
The indisputable ability of ants to 
communicate with each other is one of 
££ 
the most interesting and fruitful of the 
several branches ofstudy connedfed with 
the cpieer little fellows. Just how this 
communication is carried on is disputed. 
The theory that it is by means of a tele¬ 
graphic system of taps of the antenme 
is, to say the least, time honored, and if 
that were a sufficient indorsement in 
itself, this idea would of necessity lead 
all others. Scientists, however,—scien¬ 
tists more than naturalists—have a pecu¬ 
liar habit of refusing to accept ideas of 
any kind simply because such ideas can 
boast of a pedigree extending back for 
a long peiiod of time. The idea and 
the circumstances attendant upon its for¬ 
mation must be inquired into. 
Altogether, though, it appears to the 
writer that this proposition is the most 
acceptable. I do not mean that there 
is a regular formulated alphabet of signs 
after the style of the human “deaf and 
dumb” language, but a system construdf- 
ed upon the same plan, though in a 
much more qj'ude condition, being only 
so far advanced as to enable the 
communicants to convey and grasp gen- 
eial propositions, and not sufficiently 
extensive to allow of their going into 
the finer details of conversational science 
or to empower them to comprehend the 
minutim .of a closely connedfed chain of 
logic. 
So far as is known, the vocal organs 
of ants are not so far developed as to 
permit of the utterance of distinct sounds. 
TO UE CONTINUED. 
What is said to be the largest speci¬ 
men of the century plant in existence is 
in Kenosha, Wis. It is about twenty 
feet in diameter, the leaves being from 
eight to eleven feet long. 
j!;^Subscribe immediately ! 
