The Zoological Conference now sitting in Berlin will, we see,
help to confirm the popular idea as to the wisdom of the ant. Professor Morel, of Switzerland, who has made that insect his study, says the ant's brain, in the workers at all events, is well developed ; they have four of the five senses —hearing being probably wanting—and they possess reason- ing powers as well as memory. They make war and peace, but after war has ceased individual ants of Dr. Johnson's temperament still "go for" individual enemies. It is all true, we fear, and all rather melancholy, most of the gifts upon which man prides himself being shared by creatures whom he only despises. If a flea can reason as well as jump and bite, what becomes of the innate superiority 'of man? He is bigger, but if he is to die like a flower that is not much to boast of. Stay, no ant has yet been seen to kill another ant with a weapon at a distance. The rifle differentiates us.
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