The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-07-24
Important Result.

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 One of the important results of their investigations consists in the additional evidence which they have collected of the great diversity of habits, nov only be- tween different species but also between different individuals belonging 60 the same species. Professor ForeI and I both ar- rived at similar results in the case of ants, and. as MT. and Mrs. Peckham point out. it is exceedingly probable thas a painstakng study of any branch what ever of the animal kingdom would lead to the same conclusion. They tell us that they found "a most interesting variation among the different individuals. not only in methods, but in character and intellect. While one (wasp) was beguiled from her hunting by every blossom she passed. another stuck to her work With Indefatfg- able perseverance. While one stung her caterpillar so carelessly and made her nest in so shiftless way that her young could sArvive only through some lucky chance. another devoted herself to these duties not only with conscientious thor oughness. but with an apparent craving after artistic perfection that was touching to see.'
 An example of such an apparent crav- irg is given in the case of a, Pompilins fuscpennis who, having finished the building of her nest. brought quantity
 
 the nest-a little stick, the petal of a faded flower scrap of dead leaf, and so on until ten or twelve things had been collected" This certainly appears to have been entirely personal, since in no other examples of P fuscipennis did they ever see such perfect work again.
 Prof Fabre himself, indeed, shows that instincts are not immutable. For instance, on one occasion he took two dozen soli- tary bees cells from quarry, where they had been nesting, as he supposes, Tor centuries, in snail shells, and placed them in his study with some empty shells and hollow stems. When the young bees came out, in the following spring, nearly all of them selected the stalks to build in as heinz better suited to their use than the shells.
 One of MT. and Mrs. Peckham's most interesting observations is. that of an Ammophila urnaria, thel actually took A small pebble Tn her mancibles ana used it as a hammer to pound down the earth over her nest.
 Examples Are Balanced. Such examples of what may almost be called artistic and intellectual gifts are balanced by many cases of equally sur prising carelessness and stupidity. some absent minded wasps cheerfully close up their cells quite forgetting to supply the necessary fGOut or even lo my "i 70 ' others. when interrupted in their work, appear incapable of picking up the threads again. Yet perhaps we should not De to hastily in judging these poor wasps, when we remember that even men are not invariably intelligent in either what they do or leave undone.
 This is not confined to the stupid or vicious; even the ablest often fail to per- ceiye what afterward appears almost self-evident. l may for instance, refer to the fact that the use and effects or laughing gas were discovered by Sir II. Davy at the commencement of the last century and taugh in the best medical schools for full fifty years before the ap- parently obvious idea occurred to any one that these properties might be put to use in actual practice.
 Other similar facts might be adduced and ought to make us chary of accusing these wonderfully industrious little crea- tures. whose motives it is quite possible we may not always understand. Wasps are even buster than the busy bee. nave several times watched one the whole day and from in the morning till light failed in the evening she worked without any interval for rest or enjoyment