More Hunting Wasps 



humanity. In our excursions through the 

 woods, he happens to get caught by the paw 

 in a wire snare set for rabbits. Like the 

 Tachytes, he tugs at it obstinately and only 

 pulls the noose tighter. I have to release 

 him when he does not himself succeed in 

 snapping the wire by his hard pulling. 

 When he tries to leave the room, if the two 

 leaves of the door are just ajar, he contents 

 himself with pushing his muzzle, like a 

 wedge, into the too narrow aperture. He 

 moves forward, pushing in the direction 

 which he wishes to take. His simple, dog- 

 like method has one unfailing result: the 

 two leaves of the door, when pushed, merely 

 shut still closer. It would be easy for him 

 to pull one of them towards him with his 

 paw, which would make the passage wider; 

 but this would be a movement backward, 

 contrary to his natural impulse; and so he 

 does not think of it. Yet another creature 

 that does not reason. 



The Tachytes, who stubbornly persists In 

 tugging at her limed Mantis and refuses 

 to acknowledge any other method of wrest- 

 ing her from the Silene's snare, shows us 

 the Wasp in an unflattering light. What 

 a very poor intellect ! The insect becomes 

 only the more wonderful, therefore, when we 

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