Aberrations of Instinct 



is so greatly shaken that I do not regard 

 my unflattering opinion of the Mason-bee 

 as rash. 



Thirty times, I said, in my presence did 

 the artist in earthenware lay and then 

 spread her pellet of mud upon the bare 

 wall, thinking that she was applying it to 

 the nest itself. Sufficiently informed by 

 this long perseverance, I left the Pelopaeus 

 still busy at her futile task. Two days later, 

 I inspected the plastered site. The coating 

 of mud did not differ from that shown by a 

 finished nest. 



I have suggested that the insect's rudi- 

 mentary intelligence has practically the same 

 limitations everywhere. The accidental dif- 

 ficulty which one insect is powerless to over- 

 come, in default of a gleam of judgment, any 

 other, no matter what its genus or species, 

 will be equally unable to overcome. To vary 

 the evidence, I will borrow my next example 

 from the Lepidoptera.^ 



The Great Peacock ^ is the largest Moth 

 of our district. Her caterpillar, which is 

 yellow-hued, with turquoise-blue spots sur- 



^ The order of insects consisting of the Butterflies and 

 Moths. — Translator's Note. 



2 Cf. The Life of the Caterpillar, by J. Henri Fabre, 

 translated by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos: chap. xi. — 

 Translator's Note. 



117 



