The Wichita daily eagle., 1893-12-16
INDUSTRY IN ANIMALS.
Curious Analogy Between the IRstincts Of
Insects and Of Savsgss.

Curious Analogy Between the Instincts Of
Insects and Of SavsSSs.
A recent and interesting contri6u-
ton to the sum Of popular knowledge
of animal instinct is NJ. Frederic Hous-
SAYS work on The Industries of Ami
mails" published in the Contemporary
Science series by Walter Scott. 1t is
an ingenious attempt to bring man and
animals into line on the common ground
of their provision by industry OF the
necessities of life. The arts of collect
ing provisions. storing and preserving
food, domesticating and managing
focks and capturing slaves are quite as
well understood by animals and in
sects as by man in the earlier stages OF
civilization and show a curious analogy
in their development in the case Of the
more backward among human COM
munities.
Ants of the same species both have
and have not learned to keep cattle }"
Lespes found tribe of black ants
which had a Cock of COWS" which they
milked daily But he also discovered a
nest Of the same species which had no
focks. These he presented with some
of the aphides used by their cow-keep-
ing relations The ants instantly at
tackled. killed and ate them, behaving
ia exactly the same improvident man
ner as q tribe of Australian black
fellows" when presented with flock
of sheep. A little-known and striking
instance of foresight and industry
exhibited by bird is that OF the Cali
fornian woodpecker. Like others OF
its kind, this bird is an Insecticides.
Yet in view of the approach of winter,
it prepares store of food of wholly
different character, and arranges this
with as much care as an epicure might
devote to the storage of his wine IN q
cellar. In the summer the woodpecker
lives on ants. For the winter he stores
up acorns To hold each acorn it hol-
lows a small hole in q tree, into which
the acorn is exactly fitted, and is ready
to be split by the strong beak Of the
climbing woodpecker, though too
tightly held to be stolen by squirrels
or other birds A relation of this
woodpecker inhabits the dryest parts
Mexico, where, during the droughts, it
must die of starvation unless it made .
store. To prevent this it selects the
hollow stem of species at aloe, the
bore of which is just large enough to
hold a nut, The woodpecker drills
holes at intervals in the stem and 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 intelli-
gence which not only constructs a
special store house, but teaches the
woodpecker to lay by only the nuts
which will keep. and not the insects
which would decay. is perhaps the
highest form of bird-reasoning which
has vet been observed.
The common ants of Italy if not SO
strangely ingenious as the gardener
ants -of the tropics, which prepare a
particular soil on which to grow with
in their nests the fungus on which
ably the most complex form of in
stinctive industry shown by any Euro
pean animal. They store up oats and
various kinds of grain, making hun
dreds of little rooms as granaries OF
about the size of a watch. But grains
| living in the ground naturally germi-
mates. How the ants prevent this is
! not known. Probably by ventilation,
as bees ventilate their hives by arti-
fetal draught. All that is certain is
| that if the ants are removed the grain
sprouts When the ants wish to use
the store, they allow the grains to
germinate, until the chemical change
takes place in the material which
makes it's fermenting juice food suit
| able for their digestion. They then
arrest the process of change by de-
! stroying the sprout, and use the stock
! of gluti.ous sugar and starch so left as
/ their main food in winter. NJ. Houssay
might have drawn his parallel between
1 human and animal industries still
! closer, if he had referred to the curious
partnership which modern observation
! has made possible between men and
bees. BY giving the bees foundation
! Of wax stamped with the shape of the
| cells, the bee-keeper saves the hive the
| time and trouble spent in this non-pro-
iuctive labor, and the purpose of 2rti-
/ fetal aid SO given is at once compre-
hended and turned to use by the other
wise stereotyped intelligence of the
| bee.-Specsator.