94 THE WONDERS OF INSTINCT 



After a great deal of futile shaking, the tibiae are at- 

 tacked. This, it seems, is the method usually employed 

 when the body is retained by one of its limbs in some 

 narrow fork of a low-growing plant. While trying to 

 saw through the bone — a heavy job this time — one of 

 the workers slips between the shackled limbs. So situ- 

 ated, he feels against his back the furry touch of the 

 Mouse. Nothing more is needed to arouse his propen- 

 sity to thrust with his back. With a few heaves of the 

 lever the thing is done; the Mouse rises a little, slides 

 over the supporting peg and falls to the ground. 



Is this manoeuver really thought out? Has the insect 

 indeed perceived, by the light of a flash of reason, that 

 in order to make the tit-bit fall it was necessary to un- 

 hook it by sliding it along the peg? Has it really per- 

 ceived the mechanism of suspension? I know some per- 

 sons — indeed, I know many — who, in the presence of 

 this magnificent result, would be satisfied without further 

 investigation. 



More difficult to convince, I modify the experiment 

 before drawing a conclusion. I suspect that the Necro- 

 phorus, without any prevision of the consequences of his 

 action, heaved his back simply because he felt the legs of 

 the creature above him. With the system of suspension 

 adopted, the push of the back, employed in all cases of 

 difficulty, was brought to bear first upon the point of 

 support; and the fall resulted from this happy coinci- 

 dence. That point, which has to be slipped along the peg 

 in order to unhook the object, ought really to be situated 

 at a short distance from the Mouse, so that the Necro- 



