88 THE WONDERS OF INSTINCT 



hesitation, due to the inconvenient nature of the support, 

 the tactics employed to remove the body when the soil is 

 unfavorable. The insect props itself against a branch, 

 thrusting alternately with back and claws, jerking and 

 shaking vigorously until the point whereat it is working 

 is freed from its fetters. In one brief shift, by dint of 

 heaving their backs, the two collaborators extricate the 

 body from the entanglement of twigs. Yet another 

 shake ; and the Mouse is down. The burial follows. 



There is nothing new in this experiment; the find has 

 been dealt with just as though it lay upon soil unsuitable 

 for burial. The fall is the result of an attempt to trans- 

 port the load. 



The time has come to set up the Frog's gibbet cele- 

 brated by Gledditsch. The batrachian is not indispen- 

 sable; a Mole will serve as well or even better. With 

 a ligament of raphia I fix him, by his hind-legs, to a 

 twig which I plant vertically in the ground, inserting it 

 to no great depth. The creature hangs plumb against 

 the gibbet, its head and shoulders making ample contact 

 with the soil. 



The grave-diggers set to work beneath the part which 

 lies upon the ground, at the very foot of the stake; they 

 dig a funnel-shaped hole, into which the muzzle, the head 

 and the neck of the mole sink little by little. The gibbet 

 becomes uprooted as they sink and eventually falls, 

 dragged over by the weight of its heavy burden. I am 

 assisting at the spectacle of the overturned stake, one of 

 the most astonishing examples of rational accomplish- 



