porary associations like the flocks of migratory birds; but organised communities labouring with the utmost harmony for the common good. The remarkable analogies which, in so many ways, they present to our human societies, render them peculiarly interesting to us, and one cannot but long to know more of their character, how the world appears to them, and to what extent they are conscious and reasonable beings.

For my own part I cannot make use of Mr. Grote's argument, because I have elsewhere' attempted to show that, even as regards man, the case is not by any means clear. But however this may be, various observers have recorded in the case of ants instances of attachment and affection.

Forel lays it down as a general rule that if ants are slightly injured, or rather unwell, their companions take care of them: on the other hand, if they are badly wounded or seriously ill, they are carried away from the nest, and left to perish.

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Latreille, also, makes the following statement:'Le sens de l'odorat,' he says, se manifestant d'une manière aussi sensible, je voulois profiter de cette remarque pour en découvrir le siége. On a soupçonné depuis longtemps qu'il résidoit dans les antennes. Je les arrachai à plusieurs fourmis fauves ouvrières, auprès du nid desquelles je me trouvois. Je vis aussitôt ces petits animaux que j'avois ainsi mutilés

1 The Origin of Civilisation and the Primitive Condition of Man. 2 Hist. Nat. des Fourmis, p. 41.

tomber dans un état d'ivresse ou une espèce de folie. Ils erroient çà et là, et ne reconnoissoient plus leur chemin. Ils m'occupoient; mais je n'étais pas le seul. Quelques autres fourmis s'approchèrent de ces pauvres affligées, portèrent leur langue sur leurs blessures, et y laissèrent tomber une goutte de liqueur. Cet acte de sensibilité se renouvela plusieurs fois; je l'observois avec une loupe. Animaux compatissans! quelle leçon ne donnez-vous pas aux hommes.'

16

'Jamais,' says M. de Saint Fargeau, une Fourmi n'en rencontre une de son espèce blessée, sans l'enlever et la transporter à la fourmilière. L'y soigne-t-elle ? Je ne sais, mais je vois dans ce fait une bienveillance que je ne retrouve dans aucun autre insecte, même social.'

I have not felt disposed to repeat M. Latreille's experiment, and M. de St. Fargeau's statement is I think by no means correct; indeed, many of my experiences seem to show not only a difference of character in the different species of ants, but that even within the limits of the same species there are individual differences between ants, just as between men.

I will commence with the less favourable aspect. On one occasion (August 13) a worker of Lasius niger, belonging to one of my nests, had got severely wounded, but not so much so that she could not feed; for though she had lost five of her tarsi, finding herself near some syrup, she crept to it and began to feed. I Hist. Nat. des Ins. Hyménoptères, vol. i. p. 99.

laid her gently on her back close to the entrance into the nest. Soon an ant came up to the poor sufferer, crossed antennæ with her for a moment, then went quietly on to the syrup and began to feed. Afterwards three other ants did the same; but none took any more notice of her.

August 15.-I found at 1 P.M.a Myrmica ruginodis which, probably in a fight with another ant, had lost the terminal portion of both her antennæ. She seemed to have lost her wits. I put her into her nest; but the others took no notice of her; and after wandering about a little, she retired into a solitary place, where she remained from 3 P.M. to 8 without moving. The following morning I looked for her at 5.30, and found her still at the same spot. She remained there till 9, when she came out. She remained out all day; and the following morning I found her dead.

Indeed, I have often been surprised that in certain cases ants render one another so little assistance. The tenacity with which they retain their hold on an enemy they have once seized is well known. M. Mocquerys even assures us that the Indians of Brazil made use of this quality in the case of wounds; causing an ant to bite the two lips of the cut and thus bring them together, after which they snip off the ant's head, which thus holds the lips together. He asserts that he has often seen natives with wounds in course of healing with the assistance of seven or eight ants' heads!1

1 Ann. Soc. Ent. France, 2 sér. tom. ii. p. 67.

Now I have often observed that some of my ants had the heads of others hanging on to their legs for a considerable time; and as this must certainly be very inconvenient, it seems remarkable that their friends. should not relieve them of such an awkward encumbrance.

The behaviour of ants to one another differs also much according to circumstances; whether, for instance, they are alone, or supported by friends. An ant which would run away in the first case will defend herself bravely in the second.

If an ant is fighting with one of another species, her friends rarely come to her assistance. They seem generally (unless a regular battle is taking place) to take no interest in the matter, and do not even stop to look on. Some species, indeed, in such cases never appear to help one another; and even when the reverse is the case, as for instance in the genus Lasius, the truth seems to be that several of them attack the same enemy-their object being to destroy the foe, rather than to save their friend.

On one occasion several specimens of Formica fusca belonging to one of my nests were feeding on some honey spread on a slip of glass (May 22). One of them had got thoroughly entangled in it. I took her and put her down just in front of another specimen belonging to the same nest, and close by I placed a drop of honey. The ant devoted herself to the honey and entirely neglected her friend, whom she left to perish.

H

Again, some specimens of Cremastogaster scutellaris were feeding quietly (May 22) on some honey spread on a slip of glass, and one of them had got thoroughly mixed in it. I took her out and put her on the glass close by. She could not disentangle herself; not one of her friends took the least notice of her, and eventually she died. I then chloroformed one, and put her on the board among her friends. Several touched her, but from 12 to 2.30 P.M. none took any particular notice of her.

On the other hand, I have only on one occasion seen a living ant expelled from her nest. This happened in a community of F. fusca. I observed (April 23, 1880) an ant carrying another belonging to the same community away from the nest. The condemned ant made a very feeble resistance. The first ant carried her burthen hither and thither for some time, evidently trying to get away from the nest, which was enclosed in the usual manner by a fur barrier. After watching for some time I provided the ant with a paper bridge, up which she immediately went, dropped her victim on the far side, and returned home. Could this have been a case in which an aged or invalid ant was being expelled from the nest ?

I have often had ants in my nests to which mites had attached themselves.

Thus, on October 14, 1876, I observed that one of my ants (Formica fusca) had a mite attached to the underside of her head, which it almost equalled