35^ HALF HOURS WITH INSECTS. [Packard. 



l3ears on a fact, which seems at first quite subversive of the 

 foregoing theory ; namely, that the cells on the extreme 

 margin of wasps-combs are sometimes strictly hexagonal. 

 This seems to me, as already stated in the "Guide to the 

 Study of Insects," a fatal objection to any purely mechanical 

 theory, and I cannot but regard the method of building in 

 hexagons as demanding, in the first bee which built its cells 

 in this fashion, as much reasoning power as the beaver 

 exerts in planning its dams ; and who will affirm, after 

 reading Mr. Morgan's work on the beaver, that this animal 

 is guided purely by a blind instinct, or is an unconscious 

 machine ? 



