A CLAM FOR INSTINCT.
In accordance with the no longer popular theory of Lubbock's—perhaps not of Lord Avebury's—that ants are cleverer than apes, a correspondent argues that the sphex- one of Fabre's favourite studies—goes one better than Sir George Courthope's little owls who killed young pheasants in order to attract the burying beetles. It is, of course, a wholly marvellous thing that the sphex can penetrate a caterpillar just at the one tiny point where the sting produces paralysis and does not kill. But every sphex does this, and does it, as Fabre continually insists, blindly.. The sheer perfection of the operation in the wholly inexperienced proves its non- intelligence. • Nothing that we can imagine in the way of , the perfection of reasoning could achieve this result or -foresee its results. A particular action by-an individual bird is on an altogether different plane of behaviour. It is an acquired accomplishment, issuing from some power other than tropism or instinct. • _ •
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