The Burying-Beetles: Experiments 



of perception, would all, from first to last, 

 have discovered by rational means the el- 

 bowed path leading to the outer world; and 

 the cage would promptly be deserted. The 

 failure of the great majority proves that the 

 single fugitive was simply digging at random. 

 Circumstances favoured him; and that is all. 

 We must not put it to his credit that he suc- 

 ceeded where all the others failed. 



We must also beware of attributing to the 

 Necrophori a duller understanding than is 

 usual in insect psychology. I find the in- 

 eptness of the undertaker in all the Beetles 

 reared under the wire cover, on the bed of 

 sand into which the rim of the dome sinks 

 a little way. With very rare exceptions, 

 fortuitous accidents, not one thinks of cir- 

 cumventing the barrier by way of the base; 

 not one manages to get outside by means 

 of a slanting tunnel, not even though he be 

 a miner by profession, as are the Dung- 

 beetles par excellence. Captives under the 

 wire dome and anxious to escape, Sacred 

 Beetles, Geotrupes, Copres, Gymnopleuri, 1 

 Sisyphi, 2 all see about them the free space, the 

 joys of the open sunlight; and not one thinks 



1 Cf. The Sacred Beetle and Others: chap. vii. — Trans- 

 lator's Note. 



2 Cf . idem : chap. xv. — Translator's Note. 



347 



