The Great Peacock 



experiment seems to present no difficulty. 

 Let us try it. 



On the day after the invasion, I find in the 

 study eight of my visitors of the day before. 

 They are perched motionless on the trans- 

 oms of the second window, which is kept 

 closed. The others, when their dance was 

 over, about ten o'clock in the evening, went 

 out as they came in, that is to say, through the 

 first window, which is left open day and night. 

 Those eight persevering ones are just what I 

 want for my schemes. 



With a sharp pair of scissors, without 

 otherwise touching the Moths, I cut off their 

 antennae, near the base. The patients take 

 hardly any notice of the operation. Not one 

 moves; there is scarcely a flutter of the wings. 

 These are excellent conditions : the wound 

 does not seem at all serious. Undistraught 

 by pain, the Moths bereft of their horns will 

 adapt themselves all the better to my plans. 

 The rest of the day is spent in placid immo- 

 bility on the cross-bars of the window. 



There are still a few arrangements to be 

 made. It is important in particular to shift 

 the scene of operations and not to leave the 

 female before the eyes of the maimed ones 



253 



