328 THE ROLL OF THE SEASONS 



speak of "instinct" as though it were a thing apart 

 from the ordinary senses. We are astonished at the 

 sense of direction in the homing pigeon or the bee. 

 Every one who has watched the sand-wasp marvels 

 at the way in which it finds its way home. It opens 

 a hole in a waste of sand that seems to present no 

 more differences of surface than a waste of air. It 

 closes the hole, then goes off half a mile or more 

 to hunt for caterpillars, with one of which it returns 

 to the spot, where it uncovers the hole and puts the 

 booty within. It may be that a man with a compass 

 and a very carefully marked map, in which every 

 blade of grass and one or two special species of 

 other plants were used as guides, could find his way 

 from the hunting-ground to the hidden hole. But 

 a wasp, not having map or compass, and not knowing 

 the names of plants and how to measure distances, 

 is usually credited by thinking beings with some 

 intuitive sense of which we know nothing. Bates, 

 who noticed the sand-wasps of the Amazons, says : 

 " To my eye there was absolutely no landmark on 

 the even surface of sand which could serve as guide, 

 and the borders of the forest (the insect's hunting- 

 ground) were not nearer than half a mile." Yet he 

 believes with us that the insect did, by its rapid flight 

 to and fro before leaving, scratch upon its retina some 

 map of the place that enabled it to find it again after 

 an exciting chase among the leaves of the forest. 

 He goes on to tell us of an Indian boy whom they 

 took on a hunting excursion. When the white men 

 had completely lost their sense of direction in the 

 maze of the forest, the boy, " who had been playing 

 with his bow and arrow all the way, apparently taking 



