The Wit of the Wild 



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proper time and place, or even the need for do- 

 ing such work. Yet at just the right season 

 the insect collected the materials a pretty 

 thing to watch and accomplished her task as 

 neatly and effectively as had her dead-and-gone 

 mother and grandmothers, themselves guided 

 only by that inborn knowledge we term instinct. 



Such an instinct has many parallels among 

 animals, which know intuitively how to make 

 homes for themselves or nests for the care of 

 their young ; but what shall be said of the next 

 move? How can the wasp foresee (if she does) 

 the end of all preparations a history to come 

 in which she will take no part? Why must she 

 lay up spiders, and only spiders, while other 

 wasps are content with nothing but flies, and 

 still others with caterpillars, or plant lice, or 

 something else? for the methods and the pro- 

 visions are almost as various as the species. 



And here comes in another most extraor- 

 dinary feature. Many wasps do not, except 

 by accident, kill their prey. After catching 

 them they sting them with such consummate 

 art in certain nervous centers that they are not 

 o 32 fo> 



