The Mason-Wasps 



plastering the outside of her nest with mud 

 and she continues to putty the site of her 

 nest, after it has been detached from the 

 wall, without suspecting the futility of her 

 stucco. And so with the others. To re- 

 proach them for their aberrations we must 

 assume that they possess a tiny glimmer of 

 reason, as Darwin ' would have us believe ; 

 if they have it not, the reproach falls to the 

 ground and their aberrant acts are the in- 

 evitable result of an unconsciousness di- 

 verted from its normal paths. 



1 Charles Robert Darwin (1809-1882), the author of 

 The Origin of Species, had the highest opinion of Fabre 

 and spoke of him as " that incomparable observer." 

 Fabre, on the other hand, had no faith whatever in Dar- 

 winism, nor was he greatly struck by the views and the 

 suggestions for experiments with which Darwin favoured 

 him from time to time. Cf. The Mason-bees: chaps, iv. 

 and v. — Translator's Note. 



132 



