128 THE INDUSTRIES OF ANIMALS. 



unforeseen circumstances. All this is correct, but 

 where it becomes excessive is in endowing animals 

 alone with instinct and separating them from this 

 point of view from Man. It is incontestable that the 

 custom of visiting the burrow before introducing a 

 victim into it has become so imperious in the Sphex 

 that it cannot be broken, even when it is of no use. 

 It is a mechanical instinct. But we may see an 

 exactly parallel manifestation of human intelligence. 

 In face of danger man utters cries of distress; they 

 are heard and assistance comes. But these appeals 

 are not intelligent and appropriate to the end ; they 

 are instinctive. Place the same individual in a situa- 

 tion where he knows very well that his voice cannot be 

 heard ; this will not hinder him from reproducing the 

 same acts if he finds himself in the presence of danger. 

 It is thus that the Sphex proceeds, guided by instincts, 

 and it is no reason for despising it. And even in the 

 course of this little experiment the insect gives proof 

 of judgment. When it finds its cricket, it is perfectly 

 aware that it is the same cricket which it brought, 

 that there is no life in it, and that there is no need to 

 re-commence the struggle; it sees too that it is not 

 an ordinary corpse liable to putrefaction, but the very 

 same cricket, and it does not hesitate to utilise it 

 at once. 



These habits being ascertained, Fabre proceeded to 

 find out how the paralysis is produced. He awaited 

 near a burrow the Sphex's arrival, dragging a victim 

 by an antenna, and while the insect was occupied in 

 the subterranean survey he substituted a living 

 cricket for that which the Sphex had left, expecting 

 to find it on the spot where it had been placed. 

 On emerging it perceives the cricket scampering 



