CHAPTER VI 



INSTINCT AND DISCERNMENT 



'T'^HE PelopEEus^ gives us a very poor idea 

 -*■ of her intellect when she plasters up the 

 spot in the wall where the nest which I have 

 removed used to stand, when she persists In 

 cramming her cell with Spiders for the bene- 

 fit of an egg no longer there and when she 

 dutifully closes a cell which my forceps has 

 left empty, extracting alike germ and pro- 

 visions. (The Mason-bees, the Caterpillar of 

 the Great Peacock Moth and many others, 

 \f. when subjected to similar tests, are guilty of 

 the same illogical behaviour: they continue, 

 in the normal order, their series of industrious 

 actions, though an accident has now rendered 

 them all useless?/ Just like mill-stones unable 

 to cease revolving though there be no corn 

 left to grind, let them once be given the com- 

 pelling power and they will continue to per- 



^A Mason-wasp forming the subject of essays which 

 have not yet been translated into English. — Translator's 

 Note. 



i 



192 



