82 THE WONDERS OF INSTINCT 



smell, without any previous understanding, hastened to 

 the abandoned Mouse to exploit her on their own ac- 

 count? I incline to this opinion, the most likely of all 

 in the absence of exact information. 



Probability becomes certainty if we submit the case to 

 the verification of experiment. The test with the brick 

 already gives us some information. For six hours my 

 three specimens exhausted themselves in efforts before 

 they got to the length of removing their booty and placing 

 it on practicable soil. In this long' and heavy task help- 

 ful neighbors would have been anything but unwelcome. 

 Four other Necrophori, buried here and there under a 

 little sand, comrades and acquaintances, helpers of the 

 day before, were occupying the same cage; and not one 

 of those concerned thought of summoning them to give 

 assistance. Despite their extreme embarrassment, the 

 owners of the Mouse accomplished their task to the end, 

 without the least help, though this could have been so eas- 

 ily requisitioned. 



Being three, one might say, they considered themselves 

 sufficiently strong ; they needed no one else to lend them a 

 hand. The objection does not hold good. On many oc- 

 casions and under conditions even more difficult than 

 those presented by a stony soil, I have again and again 

 seen isolated Necrophori exhausting themselves in striv- 

 ing' against my artifices ; yet not once did they leave 

 their work to recruit helpers. Collaborators, it is true, 

 did often arrive, but they were convoked by their sense of 

 smell ; not by the first possessor. They were fortuitous 

 helpers ; they were never called in. They were welcomed 



