818 THE AMERICAN NATURALIST. 
inches. When she came out she carried it to the same spot 
and went down as before. We removed it again with the 
same result, and the performance was repeated a third anda 
fourth time; but the fifth time that she found her prey where 
we had placed it, she seized it by the head and, going backward, 
dragged it down into the nest without pausing. On the next 
day the experiment was repeated. After we had moved the 
grasshopper away four times, she straddled it and carried it 
down into the nest, going head foremost. On the fourth and 
last day of our experiment she replaced the grasshopper at the 
door of the nest and ran inside seven times, but then seized it 
and dragged it, going backward into the nest. 
How shall this change in a long-established custom be 
explained except by saying that her reason led her to adapt 
herself to circumstances? She was enough of a conservative 
to prefer the old way, but was not such a slave to custom as 
to be unable to vary it. 
