Show The Habits of Ant I Sir John Lubbock in a recent address on the Habits of Ants said that the I question naturally arose whether ants were moral and accountable beings They had three desires their passions even their caprices The young were I absolutely helpless Their communities j J were sometimes so numerous that perhaps per-haps London and Pekin were almost the only cities which could compare with them Moreover their nests were no mere collections of independent individuals indi-viduals nor even temporary associations like the flocks of migrating birds but organized communities laooring with the utmost harmony for the public gOQd The remarkable analogies which to our human societies they presented in so many ways rendered them peculiarly interesting teresting to us and one could not but long to know more of their 1 character how the world appeared to them and to what extent they were conscious con-scious and reasonable beings Various observers had recorded in the case of ants instances of attachment and affec tion He had never in the whole course of his observations noticed a quarrel between be-tween ants belonging to the same nest Within the limits of the community was harmony On the other hand it must beconfessed that ants not belong ng to the same nest were always enemies even > if belonging to the same species He had invariably found that if a strange ant was introduced into a nest she was sure to be attacked and driven out Ho had made some experiments on the power possessed by ants of remembering their friends and he had found after a years separation that they did so |