WILD LIFE IN CALIFORNIA 



109 



through the fence, and dragging a large 

 Lycosid (a spider). This she laid down close 

 by and began to bite at the legs quite after the 

 manner of the wasp we had seen the year be- 

 fore. Her movements were full of nervous ex- 

 citement, in marked contrast to those of the 

 previous day. Presently she went to look at 

 her nest, and seemed to be struck with a 

 thought that had already occurred to us — that 

 it was decidedly too small to hold the spider. 

 Back she went for another survey of her bulky 

 victim, measuring it with her eye, without 

 touching it, drew her conclusions, and at once 

 returned to the nest and began to make it 

 larger. We have several times seen wasps en- 

 large their holes when a trial had demon- 

 strated that the spider would not go in, but 

 ♦his seemed a remarkably intelligent use of 

 the comparative faculty. . . . While she 

 was thus employed the spider was attacked by 

 a very tiny red ant that could not by any 

 possibility have moved it. When the wasp 

 caught sight of this insignificant marauder 

 sne fell into a fit of wild fury, and bending 

 her abdomen under, seized the ant again and 

 again in her mandibles and flung it backward 

 against the tip of her sting. The little creature 

 finally escaped, seeming none the worst for 

 ♦he rough handling to which it had been sub- 

 jected, while the wasp, still trembling with 

 excitement, grasped her spider and rushed off 

 to a distance of several feet, carrying it up on 

 a weed and depositing it there." The wasp then 

 resumed her work at the nest and when in 

 about a half hour it was sufficiently enlarged 

 to allow the spider to be taken into it, she went 

 to the weed where she had hung 'up her game 

 to protect it from ants, took it down and into 

 the nest, and then closed up the entrance by 

 scratching back the earth that had been taken 

 out in excavating the hole. 



A volume might be written embracing the 

 details of acts on the part of individuals be- 

 longing to higher orders of life, indicating 

 beyond question the endowment of intellect 

 and that reason to some extent was the guiiing 

 force. Such stories might relate more to the 

 doings of domesticated animals and birds, but 

 that fact should not detract from the claim 

 of existence of reason. With the same oppor- 

 tunity for observation in wild life undoubtedly 

 much would be seen that would confirm the 

 belief that the brain in the lower forms of 

 animal life was designed by nature to fulfill 

 in a measure at least the same purposes as 

 the brain in the highest form of life. All 

 forms of animal life above the worm and sim- 

 ilar forms are constructed on the same general 

 plan, and supposedly all originated from one 



common source. It seems irrational, there- 

 fore, to deny the possession of functional power 

 of an organ in one division of life which is so 

 commonly known in all others, and so import- 

 ant and essential to the well-being and pro- 

 gress of all. 



Of course I do not credit to animals or wasps 

 any such degree of reasoning or intelligence 

 as that enjoyed by mankind. It ought to be 

 unnecessary to say it. However, it seems plain 

 to me that the power of reason is manifested, 

 in degree, as we go down the scale of life until 

 we reach the very lowest forms where, in the 

 absence of a brain, it is wholly replaced by 

 instinct as a guiding force. Instinct probably 

 warns the worm of an impending danger; it 

 contracts itself, but has not mentality to direct 

 other action to avoid it. Instinct is an im- 

 pulse to action, and reason the force to guide 

 it when choice of direction is required. In the 

 highest forms of life reason is supreme and 

 instinct cuts a small figure as a guiding force, 

 but this order of things changes as we drop 

 down the scale of life until we reach a point 

 where it is reversed, and where instinct is 

 developed to a degree as amazing in its won- 

 derful scope and marvelous in its accomplish- 

 ments as is reason and intellect at the other 

 end of the scale in the highest form of life, 

 mankind. I found in one of the books of the 

 eminent English naturalist, Thomas Belt, that 

 the author had been prompted to give his views 

 on this subject after observing a wasp capture 

 an insect, then put it in a place of security 

 temporarily. After describing the actions of 

 the wasp in familiarizing herself with the 

 locality, Mr. Belt says: "Such action is not 

 the result of blind instinct but of a thinking 

 mind; and it is wonderful to see an insect so 

 differently constructed using a mental process 

 similar to that of man. It is suggestive of the 

 probability of many of the actions of insects, 

 that we ascribe to instinct, being the result of 

 the possession of reasoning powers." 



In another place in his book Mr. Belt says: 

 "Can it not be contended that such insects 

 (ants) are able to determine by reasoning 

 powers which is the best way of doing a thing, 

 and their actions are guided by thought and 

 reflection? This view is very much strength- 

 ened by the fact that cerebral gangia in ants 

 are more developed than in any other insect 

 and that in all the Hymenoptera, at the head 

 of which they stand, 'they are many times 

 larger than in the less intelligent order, such 

 as beetles.' " 



The quotation within the concluding quota- 

 tion is from Darwin's "Descent of Man." 



