264 The Animal Mind 



scurried here and there, but she had utterly lost track of it. 

 She approached it several times, but there are no landmarks 

 on the B. field. After five minutes our wasp flew back to look 

 at her spider," which she had dropped about three feet away, 

 " and then returned to her search. She now began to run into 

 the B. holes, but soon came out again, even when not chased 

 out by the proprietor. Suddenly it seemed to strike her that 

 this was going to be a prolonged affair, and that her treasure 

 was exposed to danger, and hurrying back she dragged it 

 into the grass at the edge of the field, where it was hidden. 

 Again she resumed the hunt, flying wildly now all over the 

 field, running into wrong holes and even kicking out earth 

 as though she thought of appropriating them, but soon 

 passing on. Once more she became anxious about the 

 spider, and, carrying it up on to a plant, suspended it there. 

 Now she seemed determined to take possession of every 

 hole that she went into, digging quite persistently in each, 

 but then giving it up. One in particular that was close by 

 the spider seemed to attract her, and she worked at it so 

 long that we thought she had adopted it, for it seemed to 

 be unoccupied. At last, however, she made up her mind 

 that all further search was hopeless, and that she had 

 better begin de novo; and forty minutes from the time that 

 we saw her first she started a new nest close to the spider, as 

 though she would run no more risks" (322). An occurrence 

 of this kind certainly lends color to the ' recognition of land- 

 marks ' theory. On the other hand, the Bembex wasps them- 

 selves find their nests with unerring accuracy, though there 

 is no landmark in the field. Fabre noted that Bembex wasps 

 could not be led astray by any modification of either the look 

 or the smell of their nests, and thought a peculiar form of space 

 memory, unparalleled in our own experience, must be in- 

 volved in the nest-finding of this species (115, Series I). A 



