THE INTELLIGENCE OF THE ANT.
). f An Incident which indicates the wonderful intelligence of the ant is recorded by Sir John Lubbock in bis book, “The Beauties of Nature.” He writes : I decided to intoxicate some of my ants, to see whether they have a sign or pass-word by which they recognise each other. This was less easy than I thought. None of my ants would degrade themselves by getting drunk. However, I got over the difficulty by putting them into whisky for a few moments. I took fifty specimens, twenty-five from one nest and twenty-five from another, made them dead drunk, marked each of them with a spot of paint, and put them on a table where other ants from one of the nests were feeding. The table was surrounded as usual, with a mote of water to prevent them from straying. The ants which were feeding soon noticed those which I had intoxicated. They seemed quite astonished to find their comrades in such a disgraceful eondition. After a while they carried them all away. They took the strangers to the edge of the moat and dropped them into the water, while they bore their friends home where they slept off the effects of the spirit. Thus it is evident that they know their friwda «ren when incapable of trivia* '
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Northland Age, Volume 3, Issue 39, 14 May 1907, Page 6
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221THE INTELLIGENCE OF THE ANT. Northland Age, Volume 3, Issue 39, 14 May 1907, Page 6
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