sive 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 situation 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 away; not
a moment was to be lost, and without reflection it leapt on the
refractory victim. A lively struggle followed, a duel to the death
among the blades of grass; it was a truly dramatic spectacle, the
agile assailant whirling around the Cricket, who kicked violently with
his hind legs. If a blow were to reach the _Sphex_ it would be
disembowelled; but it avoids the blows skilfully without ceasing its
own violent attack. At last the combat ends; the cricket is brought to
earth, turned on to its back, and maintained in this position by the
_Sphex_. Still on its guard, the latter seizes in its jaws one of the
filaments which terminate the abdomen of the vanquished, placing its
legs on the belly; with the two posterior legs it holds the head
turned back so as to stretch