not seek to carry the fortress of the slave-ants by storm, but lay a regular siege, forming a complete circle round the nest, and facing it with jaws held fiercely open and antennæ thrown back. Being individually large and strong, they are able thus to confine the whole nest of slave-ants. A special guard is set upon the entrances of the nest, and this allows all slave-ants not carrying pupa to pass, while it stops all the slave-ants which carry pupa. The siege lasts till most of the slave-ants have thus been allowed to pass out, while all the pupæ are left behind. The forces then close in upon the entrances and completely rifle the nest of its pupa-a few companies, however, being told off to pursue any slave-ants which may possibly have succeeded here and there in escaping with a pupa.

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Wars are not confined to species of ants having slave-making habits. The agricultural ants likewise at times have fierce contests with one another. The importance of seeds to these insects, and the consequent value which they set upon them, induce the animals, when supplies are scarce, to plunder one another's nests, prolonged warfare being the result. Thus Moggridge says: By far the most savage and prolonged contests which I have witnessed were those in which the combatants belonged to two different colonies of the same species. The most singular contests are those which are waged for seeds by A. barbara, when one colony plunders the stores of an adjacent nest belonging to the same species; the weaker nest making prolonged, though, for the most part, inefficient attempts to recover their property.' In one case the predatory war lasted for forty-six days, during which time it became evident that the attacking nest was the stronger, for

streams of ants laden with seeds arrived safely at the upper nest, while close observation showed that very few seeds were successfully carried on the reverse journey into the lower or plundered nest. Thus, when I fixed my attention on one of these robbed ants surreptitiously making its exit with the seed from the thieves' nest, and having overcome the oppositions and dangers met with on its way, reaching, after a journey which took six minutes to accomplish, the entrance to its own home, I saw that it was violently deprived of its burden by a guard of ants stationed there apparently for the purpose, one of whom instantly started off and carried the seed all the way back again to the upper nest. . . . After the 4th of March I never saw any acts of hostility between these nests, though the robbed nest was not abandoned. In another case of the same kind, however, where the struggle lasted thirty-two days, the robbed nest was at length completely abandoned.

Lastly, M'Cook records the history of an interesting engagement which he witnessed between two nests of Tetramorium caspitum in the streets of Philadelphia, and which lasted for nearly three weeks. Although all the combatants belonged to the same species, friends were always distinguished from foes, however great the confusion of the fight. This fact is always observable in the case of battles between nests of the same species, and M'Cook thinks that the distinction appears to be effected in some way by contact of antennæ.

Keeping Pets. Many species of ants display the curious habit of harbouring in their nests sundry kinds of other insects, which, so far as observation extends, are of no benefit to the ants, and which have therefore been regarded by observers as mere domestic pets. These pets are, for the most part, species which occur nowhere else except in ants' nests, and each species of pet is peculiar to certain species of ant. Beetles and crickets seem to be the more favourite kinds of insects, and these live on the best terms with their hosts, playing round the nests in fine weather, and retiring into them in stormy weather, while allowing the ants to carry them from place to place during migrations. It is evident, therefore, that ants not only tolerate these insects, but foster them; and as it seems absurd to credit the ants with any mere fancy or caprice, such as that of keeping pets, it is perhaps safest to suppose that these insects, like the aphides, are of some use to their masters, although we are not yet in a position to surmise what this use can be.

Sleep and Cleanliness.-It is probable that all ants enjoy periods of true slumber alternating with those of activity; but actual observations on this subject have only been made in the case of two or three species. M'Cook says that the harvesting ants of Texas sleep so soundly that they may be pretty severely stroked with a feather without being aroused; but they are immediately awakened by a sharp tap. On awakening they often stretch their limbs in a manner precisely resembling that of warm-blooded animals, and even yawn— the latter action being very like that of the human animal; the mandibles are thrown open with the peculiar muscular strain which is familiar to all readers; the tongue is also sometimes thrust out.' The ordinary duration of sleep in this species is about three hours.

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Invariably on awakening, and often at other times, the ants perform, like many other insects, elaborate processes of washing and brushing. But, unlike other insects, ants assist one another in the performance of their toilet. The author just quoted describes the whole process in the genus Atta. The cleanser begins with washing the face of her companion, and then passes on to the thorax, legs, and abdomen.

The attitude of the cleansed all this while is one of intense satisfaction, quite resembling that of a family dog when one is scratching the back of his neck. The insect stretches out her limbs, and, as her friend takes them successively into hand, yields them limp and supple to her manipulation; she rolls gently over on her side, even quite over on her back, and with all her limbs relaxed presents a perfect picture of muscular surrender and ease. The pleasure which the creatures take in being thus 'combed' and 'sponged' is really enjoyable to the observer. I have seen an ant kneel down before another and thrust forward the head drooping quite under the face, and lie there motionless, thus expressing, as plainly as sign-language could, her desire to be cleansed. I at once understood the gesture, and so did the supplicated ant, for she at once went to work.

Bates also has described similar facts with regard to ants of another genus-the Ecitons.

Play and Leisure. The life of ants is not all work, or, at least, is not so in all species. Huber describes regular gymnastic sports as practised by the species pratensis. They raise themselves on their hind legs to wrestle and throw pretended antagonists with their fore legs, run after each other, and seem to play at hide and seek. When one is victorious in a display of strength, it often seizes all the others in the ring, and tumbles them about like nine-pins. Forel has amply confirmed these observations of Huber, and says that the chasing, struggling, and rolling together upon the ground, pulling each other in and out of the entrances, &c., irresistibly reminded him of romping boys at play. I understand,' he says, that the matter must seem wonderful to those who have not witnessed it, particularly when we remember that sexual attraction can here play no part.'

M'Cook and Bates also give similar accounts of the habits of play and leisure among species of the Western hemisphere.

Funerals.-The habit of carrying their dead out and away from their nests is very general, if not universal, among ants; and being no doubt due to sanitary requirements, has probably been developed as a beneficial instinct by natural selection. M'Cook says of the agricultural ants:

All species whose manners I have closely observed are quite alike in their mode of caring for their own dead, and for the dry carcases of aliens. The former they appear to treat with some degree of reverence, at least to the extent of giving them a sort of sepulture without feeding upon them. The latter, after having exhausted the juices of the body, they usually deposit together in some spot removed from the nest.

Experiments made on ants kept in confinement showed that the desire to remove dead companions was one of the strongest that they exhibited.

So great was the desire to get rid of the dead outside the nest, that the bearers would climb up the smooth surface of the glass to the very top of the jar, laboriously carrying with them a dead ant. This was severe work, which was rarely undertaken except under the influence of this funereal enthusiasm. Falls were frequent, but patiently the little undertaker' would follow the impulse of her instinct and try and try again. Finally the fact of a necessity seemed to dawn upon the ants (the jar being closed at the top so that they could not get out), and a portion of the surface opposite from the entrance to the galleries, and close up against the glass, was used as a burial-ground and sort of kitchen-midden, where all the refuse of the nest was deposited.

This author also records in his recently published work an interesting piece of information to which he was led by Mrs. Treat.

A visit was paid to a large colony of these slave-makers (F. sanguinea), which is established on the grounds adjoining her residence at Vineland, New Jersey. I noticed that a number of carcases of one of the slave species, Formica fusca, were deposited together quite near the gates of the nest. They were probably chiefly

the dry bodies of ants brought in from recent raids. It was noticed that the dead ants were all of one species, and therefore Mrs. Treat informed me that the red slave-makers never deposited their dead with those of their black servitors, but always laid them by themselves, not in groups, but separately, and were careful to take them a considerable distance from the nest. One can hardly resist pointing here another likeness between the customs of these social hymenoptera and those of human beings, certain of whom carry their distinctions of race, condition or religious caste even to the gates of the cemetery, in which the poor body moulders into its mother dust!

GEORGE J. ROMANES.

THE publication of Carlyle's Reminiscences, with all, or, if not all, far too much, of what is said in them of his friends and acquaintances, has thrown a sad element of bitterness into the outburst of admiration and sorrow which followed upon his death. It could not be otherwise, and the Upas is not the tree that should be planted on the grave of a great man.

I knew him for, I think, nearly fifty years, and what I know best is that he was not easily to be understood. One thing about him it is almost needless to say-that he was like nobody else. The world must judge men by its experience; and when the guidance of experience is wanting, the world is in a way to misjudge. It has had no experience whatever of men like Carlyle; and the circumstances under which most of these Reminiscences were written may have made them even more liable to be misunderstood than, under any ordinary conditions, Carlyle himself would be.

Those to which any exception can be taken were written in deep distress, in the autumn and winter following the death of his wife. And so singular was his condition at this time,' Mr. Froude tells us, 'that he was afterwards unconscious of what he had done, and when ten years later I found the Irving MS. and asked him about it, he did not know to what I was alluding.'

In such a state of disturbance if a man's mind can be saved, it must be by occupation; and if any occupation is possible, it will be that which has been habitual. The habit of Carlyle's mind was to look into the past, to describe what he saw there, to give it shape and colour in language, and to write about it; and this was the resource to which he betook himself.

Mr. Froude avows frankly enough his undivided responsibility for the publication of what had been so written. He avows his responsi

1 Reminiscences. By Thomas Carlyle. Edited by James Anthony Froude. 2 vols. (London: Longmans and Co., 1881.)

Mr. Carlyle's will is now published, and adverts to the MS. in these terms:'The manuscript is by no means ready for publication; nay, the questions how, when (after what delay, seven, ten years), it, or any portion of it, shall be published, are still dark to me; but on all such points James Anthony Froude's practical summing up and decision is to be taken as mine.'