WILD LIFE IN CALIFORNIA 



107 



possessed by mankind that they appear 

 miraculous and may well be unbelievable with- 

 out witnessing some of the acts demon- 

 strating the truth of it. 



However, the endowment of such instinct 

 does not of necessity preclude the possession 

 of some degree of intellect that gives con- 

 sciousness and impels rational actions. 



By vivisection and the study of living frogs, 

 birds, etc., and certain mammals, biologists 

 have acquired much knowledge of the func- 

 tions of certain organs and actions of the cen- 

 tral nervous system in man. The study shows 

 us that all forms of animal life, including 

 humans, are created and maintained on the 

 same general principles from the inception to 

 the end of their existence. It is found that 

 the digestive organs all operate to the same 

 purpose whether in a beetle, fish, bird, rat, 

 horse or man. It is the same with the breath- 

 ing function and nerve ganglia. It is true 

 there are some creatures so far down in the 

 scale of life as to be devoid, or partially so, of 

 the mentioned organs, creatures so simply 

 constructed as to have no need for them. But 

 when we find forms of life possessing all the 

 organs possessed by man, including a brain, is 

 it not logical to assume that in a general way 

 the use and purpose of the brain in one is 

 the same in all? At the same time it should 

 be recognized that its functional power in the 

 matter of intellectuality and rationality is de- 

 veloped to a much higher degree in man than 

 in any other form of life. 



It is true we are not justified in interpret- 

 ing all actions of the lower forms of life in 

 terms of our own experience and conscious- 

 ness, but when we witness performances 

 peculiar to individuals of a species manifesting 

 reason, judgment, and care outside of the 

 routine of instinctive acts, in full agreement 

 with our experiences under the same condi- 

 tions and for like purposes, it seems unrea- 

 sonable to believe that man alone is the only 

 animal possessing consciousness and the 

 power of reasoning. 



Of all the published statements that I have 

 read of observations of the doings and life 

 histories of certain members of the wasp 

 family, the records by Geo. W. Peckham and 

 Elizabeth G. Peckham are the most complete, 

 instructive, reliable and unbiased. In using this 

 latter word I have in mind the publications of 

 Fabre, the famous French naturalist, on the 

 same subject, who could see in the wonderful 

 acts of these little insects only impulses of 

 instinct. Accordingly as he saw them all 

 were endowed with the same skill, accomplish- 

 ments and peculiarities of work, variations be- 

 ing shown only in different species. 



However, the Peckhams say: "In this species 

 (Ammophila unaria). as in every one that we 

 have studied, we have found a most interest- 

 ing variation among different individuals, not 

 only in methods but in character and intel- 

 lect. While one was beguiled by every sorrel 

 blossom she passed, another stuck to her 

 work with indefatigable perserverance, while 

 one stung her caterpillar so carelessly and 

 made her nest in so shiftless a way her young 

 could only survive through some lucky chance. 



another devoted herself to these duties not only 

 with conscientious thoroughness but with an 

 apparent craving after artistic perfection that 

 was touching to see." 



Bearing out this statment, in the many pages 

 given by them in detailing the work and con- 

 duct of members of this wasp family, we find 

 a couple of paragraphs, illustrating their claim 

 from which the following are extracts: 



"We had another much less worthy example, 

 one, indeed, that went to the extreme of care- 

 lessness. . . Her nest was a very poor affair 

 just beneath the surface, and after the cater- 

 pillar was carried in it was visible from above. 

 She filled the hole with loose particles of earth 

 and then scratched the surface of the ground 

 a little in a perfunctory sort of way, as differ- 

 ent as possible from the painstaking labor we 

 had been accustomed to see in her sisters." 



"Just here must be told the story of one 

 little wasp whose individuality stands out in our 

 minds more distinctly than that of any of the 

 others. We remember her as the most fas- 

 tidious and perfect little worker of the whole 

 season, so nice was she in her adaption of 

 means to ends, so busy and contented in her 

 labor of love, and so pretty in her pride over 

 her completed work. In filling (closing) up 

 her nest she put her head down into it and bit 

 away the loose earth from the sides, letting it 

 fall to the bottom of the burrow, and then, 

 after a quantity had accumulated, jammed it 

 down with her head. Earth was then brought 

 from the outside and pressed in, and then more 

 was bitten from the sides. When, at last, the 

 filling was level with the ground, she brought 

 a quantity of fine grains of dirt to the spot 

 and picking up a small pebble in her mandl- 

 bels. used it as a hammer in pounding them 

 down with rapid strokes. Before we could 

 recover from our astonishment at this per- 

 formance she had dropped the stone and was 

 bringing more earth We threw ourselves 

 down on the ground that not a motion might 

 be lost, and in a moment we saw h<jr pick up 

 the pebble and again pound the earth into 

 place with it, hammering now here and now 

 there until all was level. Once more the whole 

 process was repeated, and then the little crea- 

 ture, all unconscious of the commotion that 

 she had aroused in our • minds, unconscious, 

 indeed, of our very existence and intent only 

 on doing her work and doing it well, gave one 

 final, comprehensive glance and flew away." 



Dr. S. W. Williston of Kansas University a 

 year or so before was witness to a similar 

 act by an Ammophila and concluded his de- 

 scription of the incident by saying: "the things 

 that struck us as most remarkable were the 

 unerring judgment in the selection of a pebble 

 of precisely the right size to fit the entrance 

 and the use of a small pebble in smoothing 

 down and packing the soil over the opening, 

 together with the instinct that taught them 

 to remove every evidence that the earth had 

 been disturbed." 



H. W. Bates relates the intelligent acts of a 

 certain wasp, the Monedula signata. which 

 convinced him that they were directed by a 

 reasoning power, and were more than an im- 

 pulse of instinct. Thomas Belt, another au- 



