200 LIFE AND SPORT IN HAMPSHIRE 



draws the grasshopper round and round the reed 

 stem, and brings it to a full stop only when it faces 

 the intruder on its haunts ? Can it be anything but 

 a precaution, a wish to face the possible enemy, and 

 so be readier to fly, should danger threaten ? I can 

 think of no other motive ; and whilst actually watching 

 the action of the creature, I cannot doubt that this 

 is the explanation. Many insects can see behind as 

 well as in front, but I suppose my grasshopper's 

 vision backwards is not so strong as forwards. It 

 may be argued that even this habit is automatic, 

 quite unconscious, no sign of understanding hi the 

 grasshopper ; that those grasshoppers which tended 

 to move round their stems, and so to face possible 

 foes, tended to survive in the fight of life ; and thus 

 the habit, highly useful to them, though it sprang 

 from " chance," became fixed. An ingenious solution, 

 but such solutions sometimes leave one cold and 

 doubting. The pity is or is it the mercy? that 

 the real origins of all such insect habits and intelli- 

 gences are utterly prehistoric. The Old Stone Man, 

 whose flaked flints we find deep in the gravel drift, 

 close to these grasshoppers, belongs to a past not more 

 difficult. We may rebuild the plesiosaurus in outline, 

 but not the stages by which the honey-bee came to 

 be air-fanner and cell-sealer, or by which my grass- 

 hopper learnt the value of facing its foe. 



There is no familiarising of the honey-bee. I 



