168 THE WONDERS OF INSTINCT 



The problem is one of the most important that science 

 can set us. Let us first hear the evidence of the young 

 Lycosas regarding its possibilities. 



For seven months, without any material nourishment, 

 they expend strength in moving. To wind up the mech- 

 anism of their muscles, they recruit themselves direct 

 with heat and light. During the time when she was 

 dragging the bag of eggs behind her, the mother, at the 

 best moments of the day, came and held up her pill to 

 the sun. With her two hind-legs she lifted it out of the 

 ground into the full light; slowly she turned it and 

 turned it, so that every side might receive its share of the 

 vivifying rays. Well, this bath of life, which awakened 

 the germs, is now prolonged to keep the tender babes 

 active. 



Daily, if the sky be clear, the Lycosa, carrying her 

 young, comes up from the burrow, leans on the kerb 

 and spends long hours basking in the sun. Here, on 

 their mother's back, the youngsters stretch their limbs de- 

 lightedly, saturate themselves with heat, take in reserves 

 of motion-power, absorb energy. 



They are motionless; but, if I only blow upon them, 

 they stampede as nimbly as though a hurricane were pass- 

 ing. Hurriedly, they disperse; hurriedly, they reassem- 

 ble : a proof that, without material nourishment, the little 

 animal machine is always at full pressure, ready to work. 

 When the shade comes, mother and sons go down again, 

 surfeited with solar emanations. The feast of energy 

 at the Sun Tavern is finished for the day. 



