XXXV 
THE UNSEEN GOAL 
HAT one swiftly moving battleship should 
sink another from a distance of many 
miles—the victim being to ordinary eyes invisible 
—seems a wonderful achievement, and not less is 
the triumph of hitting a mark outside the range 
of direct observation. We know nothing of the 
problems of this fell gunnery; we are concerned 
with what seems even more difficult to understand 
—the way in which animals often work persistently 
and elaborately towards an unseen goal. 
To take a typical illustration: many of the 
digger-wasps make burrows in the ground, in which 
they lay their eggs and also collect a store of 
paralyzed insects—a living larder for the future 
grubs. But it is only in a few species that the 
hard-working mothers survive to see their offspring. 
So the puzzle arises: How can the elaborate in- 
stinctive behavior have been evolved? We see 
a concatenation of intricate dexterities resolutely 
persisted in: the stinging of the victim so that it is 
paralyzed, yet not a corpse that would decay; the 
transport of the booty to the burrow—a task often 
requiring prodigious exertions; the placing of egg 
and provender in proper juxtaposition; the exclu- 
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