Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 48.djvu/910

828, and, by a series of little hesitating, jerky, zigzag trots, made his way up within about an inch of the chameleon. Either by sight or smell, or in some other way, this ant evidently recognized the lost treasure. Without a second's delay he turned sharply about and ran down the chair leg and disappeared somewhere under the matting with which the floor was covered. In a little less than a minute four ants made their appearance on the scene and carefully reconnoitred the field; this time two of them came and felt the body of the anolis, executed a few little zigzag trots, touched antennæ, and started back again for the chair leg. By this time a dozen or more had climbed on to the chair seat and were running about the dead body. Any further attempt to keep watch of individual ants was of course abandoned. Most of them did not go near the object of their gathering, but simply ran back and forth over the chair bottom in seemingly the most aimless way. After ten minutes had passed, and probably a hundred more or less of the little fellows were assembled and plenty were coming, they began to gather around the body, first four or five, then ten, twenty, thirty. There appeared to be no captain or leader, and seemingly very little concert of action. Those that came up would give a little tug, and then away possibly to some other part of the body, or may be to scamper over the chair bottom among the crowd of apparent idlers. I found it very difficult to count those that were at any moment pulling or pushing—both were evidently being done as they worked from either side—but as near as I could count, forty ants were the most that at any one time were tugging at this, to them, relatively enormous load. After trying various points with very little success, they finally gathered, about thirty of them, at the tail. This they readily swung around. They had at last "got the hang of it." Perhaps I imagined it, but it seemed to me I could see the added enthusiasm with which they now tugged away at their burden. Then the tail moved faster, then the head was pulled and pushed forward; and so, by swinging first one end and then the other, the, to them, gigantic mass was moved steadily toward the edge of the chair. I think here is a clear case of thought, afterthought, contrivance, the abandonment of one plan that proved a failure and the adoption of another that proved a success. They tried at first to move the whole weight, and found it too much for them; they then tried swinging it around one end at a time, and succeeded. What human engineering skill without tools could have done better?

One curious fact that I observed was that these ants do not fancy steady work. Most of them would come up and give a little push or pull and scamper off to join the crowd that was racing about on all sides. Occasionally one would tug away for