98 THE WONDERS OF INSTINCT 



simply digging at random. Circumstances favored him ; 

 and that is all. Do not let us make it a merit that he 

 succeeded where all the others failed. 



Let us also beware of attributing to the Necrophori an 

 understanding* more limited than is usual in entomologi- 

 cal psychology. I find the ineptness of the undertaker 

 in all the insects reared under the wire cover, on the bed 

 of sand into which the rim of the dome sinks a little way. 

 With very rare exceptions, fortuitous accidents, no insect 

 has thought of circumventing the barrier by way of the 

 base; none has succeeded in gaining the exterior by 

 means of a slanting tunnel, not even though it were a 

 miner by profession, as are the Dung-beetles par excel- 

 lence. Captives under the wire dome, but desirous of 

 escape, Sacred Beetles, Geotrupes, Copres, Gymnopleuri, 

 Sisyphi, all see about them the freedom of space, the joys 

 of the open sunlight; and not one thinks of going round 

 under the rampart, a front which would present no diffi- 

 culty to their pick-axes. 



Even in the higher ranks of animality, examples of 

 similar mental obfuscation are not lacking. Audubon 

 relates how, in his days, the wild Turkeys were caught 

 in North America. 



In a clearing known to be frequented by these birds, 

 a great cage was constructed with stakes driven into the 

 ground. In the center of the enclosure opened a short 

 tunnel, which dipped under the palisade and returned 

 to the surface outside the cage by a gentle slope, which 

 was open to the sky. The central opening, large enough 

 to give a bird free passage, occupied only a portion of 



