FABRE'S BOOK OF INSECTS 



from within, might help the Wasps to escape, and I 

 wished to leave the prisoners the honour of winning 

 their liberty. 



However poor the Wasps' power of reasoning, I 

 thought their escape was now probable. Those who had 

 just entered would surely show the way; they would 

 teach the others to dig below the wall of glass. 



I was too hasty. Of learning by experience or ex- 

 ample there was not a sign. Inside the glass not an 

 attempt was made to dig a tunnel. The insect popula- 

 tion whirled round and round, but showed no enter- 

 prise. They floundered about, while every day numbers 

 died from famine and heat. At the end of a week not 

 one was left alive. A heap of corpses covered the 

 ground. 



The Wasps returning from the field could find their 

 way in, because the power of scenting their house 

 through the soil, and searching for it, is one of their 

 natural instincts, one of the means of defence -given to 

 them. There is no need for thought or reasoning here : 

 the earthy obstacle has been familiar to every Wasp 

 since Wasps first came into the world. 



But those who are within the bell-glass have no such 

 instinct to help them. Their aim is to get into the light, 

 and finding daylight in their transparent prison they 

 think their aim is accomplished. In spite of constant 



