INSTINCT OF INSECTS. 515 



gravel walk, deliberately sawed off first one wing and 

 then the other ; and having thus removed the cause of 

 its embarrassment, flew off with its booty ^. Could any 

 process of ratiocination be more perfect? " Something 

 acts upon the wings of this fly and impedes my flight. 

 If I wish to reach my nest quickly, I must get rid of them 

 — to effect which, the shortest way will be to alight again 

 and cut them off." These reflections, or others of si- 

 milar import, must be supposed to have passed through 

 the mind of the wasp, or its actions are altogether inex- 

 plicable. Instinct might have taught it to cut off the 

 wings of all flies, previously to flying away with them. 

 But here it first attemped to fly with the wings on, — was 

 impeded by a certain cause, — discovered what this cause 

 was, — and alighted to remove it. The chain of evidence 

 seems perfect in proof that nothing but reason could 

 have been its prompter. 



An analogous though less striking fact is mentioned by 

 Reaumur on the authority of M. Cossigny, who witness- 

 ed it in the Isle of France where the Sphecina are accus- 

 tomed to bury the bodies of cockroaches along with their 

 eggs for provision for their young. He sometimes saw 

 an insect of this tribe attempt to drag after it into its hole 

 a dead cockroach, which was too big to be made to enter 

 by all its efforts. After several ineffectual trials the animal 

 came out, cut off its elytra and some of its legs, and thus 

 reduced in compass drew in its prey without diffi- 

 culty ''. 



Under this head I shall mention but one fact more. — 

 A friend of Gleditsch the observer of the singular econo- 

 my of the burying beetle {Necrophorus Vespillo) related 

 » Zoonoviia, i. 183. '' Reaum. \n. 283. 



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