Woods : On the Reasoning Powers of Caterpillars. 101 



past they will, with great caution, return to life, and then hurry 

 away with unwonted agility. This capacity of acting a part would seem 

 to indicate the existence of the so-called higher faculty, although it 

 might well be argued that instinct, which gives intuitively the know- 

 ledge that reason can only attain after a laborious process of comparison 

 and analysis, is actually the more lofty and divine attribute of the 

 two. 



" And Reason, rise o'er Instinct as you can, 

 In this 'tis God directs, in that 'tis man. " — Pope. 



Some caterpillars are very easily kept in confinement, and soon 

 content themselves in their artificial existence. Some of the Sphinx 

 tribe will even sit on one's hand and, feed in perfect serenity without 

 a sign of fear. Very different in character and temperament is the 

 larva of the goat moth {Gossus ligniperda), one of the most difficult to 

 keep, as it not only lives for three years in the larva state, but will 

 eat its way through almost any box in which it may be confined, so 

 long as that box is composed of materials less durable than metal. 

 Disgusting in scent, and savage in disposition, it is the only cater- 

 pillar I have ever found unpleasant to handle. It will turn upon its 

 captor and bite with all the strength of its powerful jaws. It cannot 

 be approached without provoking it to a threatening attitude, and it 

 will not feed so long as it is under observation. 



If one of these caterpillars is placed in an ordinary glass tumbler, 

 the smoothness of the surface affords no foothold for it, and it vainly 

 endeavours to climb up to the top ; but finding its efforts unavailing, 

 it takes the following means of effecting its escape : — Provided with 

 the power common to most caterpillars of producing at will a 

 silken thread (which in many instances is employed in forming the 

 cocoon), it actually forms a ladder of these threads up the side of the 

 glass, and by this means obtaining a secure foothold, climbs to the 

 top ; and the prolegs once on the rim of the glass, the caterpillar can 

 draw itself over the side. It would be difficult, I imagine, to include 

 such an action as this under the head of instinct, the conditions being 

 such as instinct is not intended to provide for. Nature not having 

 dispersed glass tumblers, nor anything resembling them, among the 

 haunts of the goat moth. Such an action as this seems to argue an 

 'amount of sagacity bordering so closely on reason, that it is difficult 

 to form any theory excluding the operation of the faculty. I am 

 inclined to think that many a mother has considered her child a 

 prodigy for some action of far less intellectual power. 



