The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1894-01-05
INSTINCT IN ANIMALS.
HOW WONDERFUL is THE SHARPNESS OF
THE ANT AND WOoDPEcKER.

HOW WONDERF u is ! F1E SMAR NESS Or
THE ANT AND WOoDPEcKER.
The arts of collecting provision string
and preserving food, domesticating and
managing focks and capturing slaves,
are quite as well understood by animals
and insects as by man in the earlier
stages of his civilization, and show
curious analogy in their development
in the case Of the more backward
among human communities.
Ants Of the same species both have
and have not learned to keep Seattle
Lespes found tribe CT black ants
which had flock of"cows" which they
mllked daily. But he also discovered
next Of the same species WHICH had
no flocks. These he presented with
some Of the aphides used by their cow
keeping relations. The ants instantly
attacked, killed and ate them, bebav-
ing in the same improvided manner as
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 California wood
pecker. Like others of its kind, this
bird is an insect-eater.
Yet, in view of the approach of
winter, it prepares a store of food of
wholly different character, and arranges
this with as much care as an epicure
might devote to the storage CT his wine
IN a cellar. In the summer the wood
pecker lives on ants. For the winterit
stores up &C rms. To hold each
acorn, it holows a small hole
in a tree, into which the acorns
are exactly fitted, and is ready to be
spit by the strong beak Of the climb
ING woodpecker, though too tightly
held to be stolen by squirrels or other
birds A relation Of this woodpecker
inhabits the dryest part of Mexico,
where, during the drouths, it must die
of starvation, unless it made store.
To.prevent this it selects the hollow
stem of species Of aloe, the bore of
which is just large enough to hold a
nut.
The woodpecker drills holes at inter-
walls in the stem, and it fills it from
bottom to top with the nuts the separate
holes being apparently made for con-
venence of access to the column of
nuts within. The intelligence which
not only constructs special store
house, but teaches the woodpecker to
Law by only the nuts which will keep,
and not the insects which would decay
is perhaps, the highest form of bird
reasoning which has yet been observed
The common ants Of 1tal y-inopi9
mentuens formica senect 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, exhibits what
is probably the most complex form
of instructive industry shown by any
European animal They store up oats
and various kinds of grain, making
hundreds of little rooms as granaries,
of about the size of watch.
But grain lying in the ground
naturally terminates. How the ants
prevent this is not know. Probably
by ventilation, as bees ventilate their
hives by artificial 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 terminate, until the chemical
change takes place in the material
which makes it lermenting juice food
suitable for their digestion. They
arrest the process of change by destroys
ing the sprout, and use the stock of
| slutinous sugar and starch so left a
! their food in winter.-LondonS Spectator.