Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 January 1875 — Intelligent Ants. [ARTICLE]

Intelligent Ants.

B. M. Hale relates the following in a recent number of the Chicago Tribune: In one of your late issues was an acconntof the wonderful intelligence of the ants of South America. I think I can contribute something to prove that the ants of this portion of our continent possess equal intelligence. While rambling in the woods on the shores of Lake Geneva last summer I discovered a company of large brown ants feasting on the crumbs left of a picnic-dinner. Their repast was found on a stump and the crumbs of cake were in a little depression of half an inch deep. The party probably numbered fifty or more. In a spirit of mischievous investigation I dipped up in my hands a little water from the lake and poured it into the depression where the ants were feasting. A general rush for dry land followed, but all were not nimble enough to escape. Several were overwhelmed and straggled for life as any human would. A few of the largest reached

the shore; but what was my astonishment when I observed that those who had escaped, after shaking themselves, signaled to others and both boldly plunged into the miniature lake, and, swimming to the rescue of their companions, seized and dragged them out of the water! Some seemed to recover immediately and ran nimbly away. Others were nearly drowned, and these were rolled and shaken by their rescuers just as drowned men are sometimes treated in similar cases. I watched their efforts with the greatest interest, for they showed such decision, coolness and bravery that it commanded my respect. They saved all but two or three from a watery grave. These I picked out and laid down on the dry wood in sight of the ants. They would come up one after the other, touch them with their anteniue, and, finding they were dead, go (mournfully?) away. I watched them until they had all left the top of the stump. They did not—at least while I remained—come back and give their brethren a decent burial, as appears to be the custom of their Mouth American fellows. For many years, what little time I have, I have watched closely the mental manifestations of animals, particularly cats, squirrels and horses, and every year the conviction grows apace that their intellectual powers, if cultivated, would far exceed our most sanguine expectations. More than this, there are evidences of something more than a “blind instinct” in plant*; and I could narrate many strange habits of certain plants whicn would surprise the unobservant.