Moth. Are we to regard these silky "feelers" as a kind of
directing compass?--I resumed, but without attaching much importance to
the matter, my previous experiment of amputation. None of those operated
on returned. Do not let us draw conclusions from that fact alone. We saw
in the case of the Great Peacock that more serious reasons than the
truncation of the antennae made return as a rule impossible.

Moreover, a second Bombyx or Eggar, the Clover Moth, very like the Oak
Eggar, and like it superbly plumed, poses us a very difficult problem.
It is fairly abundant around my home; even in the orchard I find its
cocoon, which is easily confounded with that of the Oak Eggar. I was at
first deceived by the resemblance. From six cocoons, which I expected to
yield Oak Eggars, I obtained, about the end of August, six females of
the other species. Well: about these six females, born in my house,
never a male appeared, although they were undoubtedly present in the
neighbourhood.

If the ample and feathery antennae are truly sense-organs, which receive
information of distant objects, why were not my richly plumed neighbours
aware of what was passing in my study? Why did their feathery "feelers"
leave them in ignorance of events which would have brought flocks of the
other Eggar? Once more, the organ does not determine the aptitude. One
individual or species is gifted, but another is not, despite an organic
equality.

CHAPTER XVI

A TRUFFLE-HUNTER: THE _BOLBOCERAS GALLICUS_

In the matter of physics we hear of nothing to-day but the Roentgen rays,
which penetrate opaque bodies and photograph the invisible. A splendid
discovery; but nothing very remarkable as compared with the surprises
reserved for us by the future, when, better instructed as to the why and
wherefore of things than now, and supplementing our feeble senses by
means of science, we shall succeed in rivalling, however imperfectly,
the sensorial acuteness of the lower animals.

How enviable, in how many cases, is the superiority of the beasts! It
makes us realise the insufficiency of our impressions, and the very
indifferent efficacy of our sense-organs; it proclaims realities which
amaze us, so far are they beyond our own attributes.

A miserable caterpillar, the Processional caterpillar, found on the
pine-tree, has its back covered with meteorological spiracles which
sense the coming weather and foretell the storm; the bird of prey, that
incomparable