XII THE IGNORANCE OF INSTINCT 169 



eyes, a sign among Hymenoptera, as I believe, that 

 they give a thing up. 



Yet there were points by which the ephippiger 

 might be seized and dragged as easily as by the 

 antennae and palpi. There are the six feet, there is 

 the ovipositor — all organs slender enough to be 

 thoroughly grasped and used as traction ropes. I 

 own that the easiest way of getting the prey into the 

 storehouse is to introduce it head first by the 

 antennae ; yet, drawn by one foot, especially a front 

 one, it would enter almost as easily, for the orifice is 

 wide and the passage short, even if there be one. 

 How came it then that the Sphex never once tried 

 to seize one of the six tarsi or the point of the 

 ovipositor, while she did make the impossible, absurd 

 attempt to grip with mandibles far too short the 

 huge head of her prey ? Perhaps the idea did not 

 occur to her. Let us try to suggest it. I place 

 under her mandibles first a foot, then the end of 

 the abdominal sabre. She refuses obstinately to 

 bite ; my repeated solicitations come to nothing. 

 A very odd kind of hunter this to be so embarrassed 

 by her game and unable to think of seizing it by a 

 foot if it cannot be taken by the horns ! Perhaps 

 my presence and all these unusual events may have 

 troubled her faculties ; let us leave her to herself, 

 with her burrow and ephippiger, and give her time 

 to consider and to imagine in the calm of solitude 

 some means of managing the business. I walked 

 away and returned in a couple of hours to find the 

 Sphex gone, the burrow open, and the ephippiger 

 where I had laid it. The conclusion is that the 

 Sphex tried nothing, but departed, abandoning home, 



