202 ANIMAL BEHAVIOUR 



paper, this makes no difference to the success of the boring. 

 But if a little empty paper box be placed over the lid the 

 grub emerges into this, and having completed the boring 

 part of its inborn routine cannot recommence it, and dies 

 in its paper prison. Limitations of this sort are quite char- 

 acteristic of purely instinctive behaviour and seem to remove 

 it far from intelligence. 



But the rigidity of instinctive routine must not be exag- 

 gerated. Professor and Mrs. Peckham have made a careful 

 study of the instincts of wasps, both solitary and social. 

 Several of the solitary forms go through the same general 

 routine, but with interesting generic, specific, and even indi- 

 vidual differences. When the female — Ammophila, for in- 

 stance — is ready to lay eggs, she makes a hole in the ground, 

 closes it up, searches for some kind of prey (such as a cater- 

 pillar), stings it several times and pinches it, drags it to 

 the nest, lays it down, opens the nest, drags in the paralysed 

 victim, deposits an egg beside it, and then covers up the hole. 

 On the whole it works like clockwork, but there may be 

 variations and mistakes at every step ! Moreover, in the 

 wasp's routine there is probably help from intelligence — 

 in choosing a good site, in adapting the shape of burrow to 

 the soil, in remembering the locality, in biting at the prey 

 to suit the size of hole, and so on. 



The general characteristics of instinctive behaviour have 

 been admirably summed up by Prof. Lloyd Morgan. " In- 

 stinctive behaviour is that which is, on its first occurrence, 

 independent of prior experience ; which tends to the well- 

 being of the individual and the preservation of the race; 

 which is similarly performed by all the members of the same 

 more or less restricted group of animals and which may 

 be subject to subsequent modification under the guidance of 



