The Leaf-cutters 



Well, the Leaf-cutter is even less well-off 

 than ourselves. She has no mental picture of 

 her pot, because she has never seen it; she is 

 not able to pick, and choose in the crockery- 

 dealer's heap, which acts as something of a 

 guide to our memory by comparison; she 

 must, without hesitation, far away from her 

 home, cut out a disk that fits the top of her 

 jar. What is impossible to us is child's-play 

 to her. Where we could not do without a 

 measure of some kind, a bit of string, a pat- 

 tern or a scrap of paper with figures upon it, 

 the little Bee needs nothing at all. In house- 

 keeping matters she is cleverer than we are. 



One objection was raised. Was it not pos- 

 sible that the Bee, when at work on the shrub, 

 should first cut a round piece of an approxi- 

 mate diameter, larger than that of the 

 neck of the jar, and that afterwards, on re- 

 turning home, she should gnaw away the su- 

 perfluous part until the lid exactly fitted the 

 pot? These alterations made with the model 

 in front of her would explain everything. 



That is perfectly true; but are there any al- 

 terations? To begin with, it seems to me 

 hardly possible that the insect can go back 

 to the cutting once the piece is detached from 



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