CHAP. II. THEIR INTELLIGENCE. 95 



petioles of foreign plants, wholly unknown 

 to the progenitors of the worms which act 

 in the described manner. Nor are their actions 

 so unvarying or inevitable as are most true 

 instincts. 



As worms are not guided by special in- 

 stincts in each particular case, though pos- 

 sessing a general instinct to plug up their 

 burrows, and as chance is excluded, the next 

 most probable conclusion seems to be that 

 they try in many different ways to draw in 

 objects, and at last succeed in some one way. 

 But it is surprising that an animal so low 

 in the scale as a worm should have the 

 capacity for acting in this manner, as many 

 higher animals have no such capacity. For 

 instance, ants may be seen vainly trying 

 to drag an object transversely to their 

 course, which could be easily drawn longi- 

 tudinally; though after a time they gener- 

 ally act in a wiser manner. M. Fabre 

 states* that a Sphex an insect belong- 

 ing to the same highly-endowed order 

 with ants stocks its nest with paralysed 



* See his interesting work, ' Souvenirs entomologiques,' 1879 

 pp. 168-177. 



