XXXV 

 THE UNSEEN GOAL 



^ I ^ HAT one swiftly moving battleship should 

 J_ sink another from a distance of many 

 miles the victim being to ordinary eyes invisible 

 seems a wonderful achievement, and not less is 

 the triumph of hitting a mark outside the range 

 of direct observation. We know nothing of the 

 problems of this fell gunnery; we are concerned 

 with what seems even more difficult to understand 

 the way in which animals often work persistently 

 and elaborately towards an unseen goal. 



To take a typical illustration: many of the 

 digger-wasps make burrows in the ground, in which 

 they lay their eggs and also collect a store of 

 paralyzed insects a living larder for the future 

 grubs. But it is only in a few species that the 

 hard-working mothers survive to see their offspring. 

 So the puzzle arises: How can the elaborate in- 

 stinctive behavior have been evolved? We see 

 a concatenation of intricate dexterities resolutely 

 persisted in: the stinging of the victim so that it is 

 paralyzed, yet not a corpse that would decay; the 

 transport of the booty to the burrow a task often 

 requiring prodigious exertions; the placing of egg 

 and provender in proper juxtaposition; the exclu- 



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