522 INSTINCT OF INSECTS. 
Under this head I shall mention but one fact more.— 
A friend of Gleditsch the observer of the singular econo- 
my of the burying beetle (Necrophorus Vespillo) related 
ina former letter*, being desirous of drying a dead toad, 
fixed it to the top of a piece of wood which he stuck into 
the ground. But a short time afterwards, he found that 
a body of these indefatigable little sextons had circum- 
vented him in spite of his precautions. Not being able 
to reach the toad, they had undermined the base of the 
stick until it fell, and then buried both stick and toad. 
In the second place, insects gain knowledge from ex- 
perience, which would be impossible if they were not gift- 
ed with some portion of reason. In proof of their thus 
profiting, I shall select from the numerous facts that 
might be brought forward, two only, one of which has 
been already slightly adverted to°. 
M. P. Huber, in his valuable paper in the sixth volume 
of the Linnean Transactions4, states that he has seen 
large humble-bees, when unable from the size of their 
head and thorax to reach to the bottom of the long tubes 
of the flowers of beans, go directly to the calyx, pierce it as 
well as the tube with the exterior horny parts of their 
proboscis, and then insert their proboscis itself into the 
orifice and abstract the honey. They thus flew from 
lower to flower, piercing the tubes from without, and 
sucking the nectar, while smaller humble-bees or those 
with a longer proboscis entered in at the top of the corolla. 
Now from this statement it seems evident, that the 
larger bees did net pierce the bottoms of the flowers until 
@ Vou. I. 4th Ed. 350. 
» Gleditsch Physic, Bot, @con. Abhandl. iti. 220. 
« See above, :p. 118, Cre 220) 
