The Ignorance of Instinct 187 



dense enough not to realize that the cell is 

 empty ? I dare not accuse her of such stupidity. 

 She is aware of it. But then why that other 

 piece of stupidity which makes her close — 

 and very conscientiously close — an empty bur- 

 row, one which she does not purpose to victual 

 later ? Here the work of closing is useless, 

 is supremely absurd ; no matter : the insect 

 performs it with the same ardour as though 

 the larva's future depended on it. The in- 

 sect's various instinctive actions are then 

 fatally linked together. Because one thing 

 has been done, a second thing must inevitably 

 be done to complete the first or to prepare the 

 way for its completion ; and the two acts 

 depend so closely upon each other that the 

 performing of the first entails that of the 

 second, even when, owing to casual circum- 

 stances, the second has become not only in- 

 opportune but sometimes actually opposed to 

 the insect's interests. What object can the 

 Sphex have in blocking up a burrow which has 

 become useless, now that it no longer contains 

 the victim and the ^gg, and which will always 

 remain useless, since the insect will not return 

 to it ? The only way to explain this incon- 

 sequent action is to look upon it as the inevit- 

 able complement of the actions that went 

 before. In the normal order of things, the 



