dustry, and their dwellings are models of architecture. As they have
been more carefully studied we know more exactly how they work, and
the considerable sum of intelligence and initiative which they reveal
in the accomplishment of their task. At the foot of hedges, on the
outskirts of woods, they raise their frail monuments. The species are
not equally skilful, and such differences as we have found in other
industries may also be found here. In a general manner it was soon
found that Ants do not, like Bees, obey a rigid instinct which ordains
the line of conduct under every circumstance, and impels each
individual to act so that his efforts are naturally combined and
harmonised with those of his neighbours in the workshop. One soon
perceives when observing an ant-hill that any individual insect
follows, when working, a personal idea which it has conceived, and
which it realises without troubling itself about the others. Often
these latter are executing a quite contradictory plan. It is rather an
anarchistic republic. Happily Ants are not obstinate, and when they
see the idea of one of them disengaging itself from the labour
commenced, they are content to abandon their own less satisfactory
idea and to collaborate in the other's work. They are able, for the
rest, to concert plans; the movements of their antennae are a very
complicated language containing many expressions, and the worker who
desires the acceptance of his own point of view is not sparing in
their use.[104] It sometimes happens that his efforts are vain, and
that his companions manoeuvre to thwart his schemes. In the presence of
such resistance those who are determined to obtain the adoption of
their own plans destroy the labours of their opponents; fierce
struggles ensue, and here it is the strongest who becomes the
architect-general.

[104] For a discussion of the methods of communication among
Ants, tending to the conclusion that these methods "almost
amount to language," see Lubbock's _Ants, Bees, and Wasps_,
chap. vi. And for a general discussion of language among
animals, see Alix, _L'esprit de nos Betes_, pp. 331-367.

The _Formica fusca_ constructs its nest of plastered earth. The
different superimposed storeys have been added one by one to the upper
part of the old dwelling when the latter became too small for the
growing colony. In opening an ant-hill, they are found to be quite
distinct from each other; each i