The JfaturaUsts’ Convpamoih. 
Some Stories About Ants. 
HY W. 11. LIGHTON, CRESTON, IOWA. 
Continued f rom last issue. 
Another question wliieli furnishes 
ground for debate, is whether the or¬ 
gans of vision are so far advanced as 
to suffice as such in the performance of 
ordinaiy duties of life, or whether it is 
not necessary for the ant to employ 
the power of scent, which it possesses 
so wonderfully developed, as a substi¬ 
tute. 
Its underground habits would sug¬ 
gest this latter case to be true, as it 
would have comparativel^V little need 
of acute eyesight in its life in the in¬ 
terior of the hill, and scent, on the oth¬ 
er hand, would come into most active 
service. 
Francis Huber, the blind naturalist, 
was devoted to this idea, and some of 
his experiments were most satisfactory. 
One of these is very interesting and 
very simple, and can be tried by any 
one who cares to see a curious illustra¬ 
tion of the correctness of Huber’s be¬ 
lief. I have tried it many times and 
alwaj^s with the same result. 
Take a bit of sugar, or other sub¬ 
stance of which the little fellows are 
fond, and place it upon a sheet of pa¬ 
per or clean shingle, near the nest, and 
if your ants are native born American 
citizens, it will not be man}’- minutes 
before the sugar will be discovered, 
and after that it will be but a short 
time until the working population of 
the hill will be in battle arra}^ remov¬ 
ing the store of sweets to withindoors. 
Now watch the procession closely 
and you will see that instead of each 
individual acting independently of its 
brothers in the work and choosing its 
S7 
own pathway to and from the nest, all 
pass back and forth in regular columns, 
each ant follo’wing directly in the foot¬ 
steps of the one which preceded it, 
and observing with surprising accur¬ 
acy each variation to one side or the 
other. 
If, as the first ant started to return, 
you take a pin-point and force the ant 
to take a very winding and devious 
course, that will make no apparent dif¬ 
ference to those that follow—they will 
keep exactly in its foot-steps. 
So, too, if you lift an ant up and 
place it upon the ground eighteen inch¬ 
es from the nest, it will not take a di¬ 
rect road back, as it would if it could 
see the nest, but will run wildl}^ this 
way and that, untd it strikes the trail 
of some of its fellow citizens who have 
passed that way, and will follow this 
pathwmy, by scent, till it reaches the 
nest. 
It is believed that ants and bees and 
other insects, have the e3'es sufficiently 
developed to be able to perceive liglit 
and even to distinguish colors, but not 
so as to distinguish objects one from 
another. 
Other stories will have to be kept 
for another time, as this paper is 
stretched out far bej^ond the si)ace I 
should have taken. 
During the last two years, several 
Celtic tumulus in the district of Gein- 
berg, in Upper Austria, have been 
opened and found to contain valuable 
relics of prehistoric times. Recentl}' 
a similar tumulus ivas discovered at 
Mattighofen,in the same neighborhood 
and among its contents was found a 
diadem of pure gold richly carved in 
the well-known style of old Celtic art. 
Young J^^ituralisVs Journal. 
