94 HABITS OF WORMS. Chap. II 



grasshoppers, which are invariably dragged 

 into the burrow by their antennae. When 

 these were cut off close to the head, the 

 Sphex seized the palpi ; but when these 

 were likewise cut off, the attempt to drag 

 its prey into the burrow was given up in 

 despair. The Sphex had not intelligence 

 enough to seize one of the six legs or 

 the ovipositor of the grasshopper, which, as 

 M. Fabre remarks, would have served equally 

 well. So again, if the paralysed prey with 

 an egg attached to it be taken out of the 

 cell, the Sphex after entering and finding the 

 cell empty, nevertheless closes it up in the 

 usual elaborate manner. Bees will try to 

 escape and go on buzzing for hours on a 

 window, one half of which has been left open. 

 Even a pike continued during three months 

 to dash and bruise itself against the glass 

 sides of an aquarium, in the vain attempt to 

 seize minnows on the opposite side.* A cobra* 

 snake was seen by Mr. Layard f to act much 

 more wisely than either the pike or the Sphex ; 



* Mobius, 'Die Bewegungen der Thiere,' &c, 1873, p. 111. 

 f ' Annals and Mag. of N. History,' series ii. vol. ix. 1852, 

 p. 333. 



