3IO The Hunting JVasps 



find the dovecote at a distance of two thousand 

 miles, which is thrice the greatest length of 

 France from north to south. I do not know 

 that a Carrier-pigeon has ever performed such 

 a feat. But power of flight and, still less, 

 lucidity of instinct are qualities that cannot be 

 measured by the yard. Comparative size cannot 

 here be taken into consideration ; and we must 

 just look upon the insect as a worthy rival of the 

 bird, without deciding which of the two has 

 the advantage. 



In returning to the dovecote and the burrow, 

 when man has artificially made them lose their 

 bearings and carried them to great distances, in 

 unfamiliar directions and into regions which 

 they have not yet visited, are the Pigeon and 

 the Cerceris guided by recollection ? Is memory 

 their compass when, on reaching a certain height, 

 whence they can, so to speak, pick up the scent 

 after a fashion, they dart with all their power of 

 wing towards the horizon where their nests are ? 

 Is it memory that traces their road through the 

 air, across regions which they are seeing for the 

 first time ? Obviously not : there can be no 

 recollection of the unknown. The Wasp and 

 the bird are unacquainted with the country 

 around ; nothing can have told them the general 

 direction in which they were moved, for the 

 journey was made in the darkness of a closed 



