I am puzzled to account for the fact, which I have seen stated by more than one observer in India, that the ants there have a habit of bringing out large quantities of grain and seed and laying them in heaps outside their nests at the commencement of the wet season. Dr. King, the director of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Calcutta, has told me that when in the Gwalior territory during the beginning of the rainy season, he saw heaps of seeds, principally those of a leguminous plant (_Alyssocarpus_), piled up round the entrances to the ants' nests, and that it was precisely at that time that flocks of a rock-grouse (_Pterocles exustus_) first made their appearance. They fed freely upon the seeds, and Dr. King found the crops of some of these birds, which he had shot, filled with them. It is difficult to imagine why these Indian ants should turn out from their nests the very seeds which it had cost them so much labour to collect, and the more so as we find that these seeds are devoured by birds. It seems just possible, however, that the ants, remaining torpid during the rainy season, do not require the seeds, and know that, under these circumstances, if left in the nest, they would sprout, and choke up the galleries and granaries. Perhaps also they may have learned that a certain number of the ejected seeds will spring up and afford future harvests within easy reach of the nest. All this, however, and especially the suggestion as to the dormant condition of the ants during the rainy season, might easily be proved or disproved by direct observation; and at present we have nothing but mere speculation to go upon. It is curious to find that the native population in a certain part of India pay a kind of tribute to the ants, for Dr. King informs me that the Hindoos in Rajputana, a province in which the old traditions and superstitions retain especial hold, have a custom of scattering dry rice and sugar for the ants, and thus apparently recognise both their love of sweet things and their habit of collecting seeds. It may be that this custom is now little more than a meaningless rite; but in the past it probably had its origin, either in a wish to propitiate the good will and avert the destructive attacks of creatures which are the scourge and dread of entire districts, or in a sentiment of combined fear and admiration--fear of the power, and admiration of the energy, forethought, perseverance, and sense of duty to the community displayed by these marvellous insects. That the latter feeling may have had some share in prompting this act is suggested by another custom which is stated[117] to prevail in Arabia, in accordance with which an ant is placed in the hand of a newly-born child, in order that its virtues may pass into and possess the infant. [Footnote 117: Freytag, paragraph under the Arabic word for Ant, in his _Lexicon Arabico-Latinum_, vol. iv. p. 339, where he quotes from a local dictionary.]