More Hunting Wasps 



in date and that of which I have the fondest 

 memories. Nowhere do I find a more bril- 

 liant, more lucid, more eloquent proof of 

 the intuitive wisdom of instinct; nowhere 

 does the theory of evolution suffer a more 

 jobstinate check. 



Darwin, a true judge, made no mistake 

 about it. He greatly dreaded the problem 

 of the instincts. My first results in particu- 

 lar left him very anxious. If he had known 

 the tactics of the Hairy Ammophila, the 

 Mantis-hunting Tachytes, the Bee-eating 

 Philanthus, the Calicurgi and other ma- 

 rauders, his anxiety, I believe, would have 

 ended in a frank admission that he was un- 

 able to squeeze instinct into the mould of his 

 formula, Alas, the philosopher of Down ^ 

 quitted this world when the discussion, with 

 experiments to support it, had barely begun: 

 a method superior to any argument! The 

 little that I had published at that time left 

 him with still some hope of an explanation. 

 In his eyes, instinct was always an acquired 

 habit. The predatory Wasps killed their 

 prey at first by stabbing it at random, here 



' Charles Robert Darwin, b. the I2th of February, 1809, 

 at Shrewsbury, died at Down, in Kent, on the 19th of 

 April, 1882. For an account of certain experiments which 

 the author conducted on his behalf, cf. The Mason-bees: 

 chap. iv. — Translator's Note. 

 iB6 



