The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1893-12-07
INSTINCT IN ANIMALS.
Wonderful Smartness of the Ant and of tn
Woodpecker.
I


Woodpecker
London Spectator.
The arts of collecting provisions, storing and
| preserving food, DEMONSTRATING and managing
| focks and capturing slaves are quite as we'll
understood by animals and insects as by man
in the earlier stages of his civilization. and
show curious analogy in their developments
| in tine case of the more backward among human
communities. -.s ..-.,. 81
Ants of the same species both have and have
not learned to keep cattle" Lespes found a
tribe of black ants which had flock of COWS"
! which they mlked daily. But he also dis
covered nest of the same species which had
no focks. l- ~
These he presented with some of the aphides
used by their cow-keeping relations. The ants
instantly attacked, killed, aud ate them, be-
having in the same improvident manner as q
tribe of the Australian "blacls fellows" when
presented with a flock Of sheep. A little
known and striking instance of foresight and
industry exhibited by bird is that of the
California wOodpecker. Like others of its kind,
this bird is an insect eater.
Yet in view of the approach of Winter it
prepares q store of food of wholly different
character. and arranges this with as much care
as epicure might devote TO the storage Of
his wine in cellar. In the Summer the
wOodpecker lives OH ants. For the Wintar it
stores up acOrns. To hold each acorn il holiows
a small hole in a tree, into which the acorns
are exactly fitted, and is ready to be split by
the strong beak of the climbing wook pecker,
though too tightly held to be stolen either by
squirrels or other birds.
A relation of this woodpecker inhabits the
dryest parts of Mexico. where during the
droughts it must die of starvation unless it
made store. To prevent this it selects the
hollow stem of a species of aloe, the bore of
which is just large enough to hold nut.
The wood peeker drills holes at intervals In
the stem, and it fills it from bottom to top with
the nuts the separate holes being apparently
made for convenience of access to the column
of nuts within.
The intelligence which not only constructs
special storeEOuse, but teaches the wood pecker
to lay By only the nuts which will keep, aud
not the insects which would decay, is, perhaps.
the highest form Of bird reasoning which has
yet been observed.
The common ants of Italy-inopioe metuens
formica senectae of the Romans-if not so
strangely ingenious as the gardener ants of the
tropics. which prepare particular soil on
which to grow within their nests the fungus
on which alone they feed. exhibit what is prob
ably the most complex form of instructive in
dustry shown by any European animal They
store up oats and various kinds of grain. max
ing hundreds of little rooms as granaries, of
about the size of watch.
But grain lying in the ground naturally
germinates. How the ants prevent this is not
known. Probably by ventilation. as bees
ventiate their hives by artificial draught. All
that is certain is that if the ants are removed
the grain sprouts.
When the ants want to use the store they
allow the grain to germinate. until the chemi-
cal change takes place in the material which
makes its fermenting juice food suitable for
their digestion. They arrest the process of
change by destroying the sprout and use the
stock of glutinous sugar and starch so left as
their main food in Winter