Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-06-15


small wad Of paper Of the same size.
He detached the ball Of eggs and Of.
fered a cork ball and it was seized
al once. He put half a dozen cork
balls and a lot of balls of paper along
with the ball Of eggs near the spider
and the insect seized the first one on
which it happened and was as content
with it as though it were genuine"
1T seemed to show about as much
intelligence as brooding hen that
will sit on a door knob" remarked
Owen.
1T was certainly no more intelli.
gent" admitted "A more interesting
experiment was the one which Fabre
made with the burying beetles. He
found in a French book on ento-
mology two statements cited as prov.
ing the reasoning power Of the beetles
and he set about testing their accu-
racy. One was that some beetles
which found 1t impossible to bury a
dead mouse because the ground on
which it lay was too hard had gone
away for assistance and returned with
four others. A hole was then dug
where the ground was soft and the
mouse moved to it and buried there.
The other was that some beetles find
ing frog tied to a stake had dug
under the stick, SO as to make 1t fall,
and then had buried both stick and
frog together.
"Fabre put some beetles In a pan
of earth in the center of which he had
sunk a brick covered with thin Aim
Of the earth. He laid dead mouse
on the brick. The beetles which first
found the mouse began their usual
work of digging the earth from
beneath that the mouse might sink
into the ground. After a time they
discovered that they could not dig
through the brick. Although there
were other beetles in the pan, they did
not go for assistance. They first
explored the surface to find a soft
place. and spent several hours sound
ing the soil, acting apparently with no
definite plan. but merely haphazard
fashion. Then they went back to the
mouse, got under 1t and began to move
1t. but one beetle would push one way
and another push in another direction
After long time they all CHANGED to
push in the same direction and the
mouse was rolled of into the soft earth
and buried. 1t took six hours for these
intelligent creatures to do what a
creature able to reason from cause to
effect would have accomplished in a
twentieth Of the time. Fabre also dis.
covered that the beetles were unable
to bury dead mole which was tied
by Its hinder legs to slanting stake
SO fixed that when they dug under the
head, resting on the soil, they would
not undermine the stake.
But his most interesting experimen,
was with pine caterpillars. These
creatures lay a thread on the bark OF
the tree as they move along. The
leader lays the first thread and those
which follow after lay another one
/
has his nose on the tail of the ons
ahead Of him, and they always follow
the line of thread. Fabre wondered
what would happen II he could get 6
procession of these caterpillars in 9
circle. with the nose Of the leader OF
the tail of the last one. By chance h,
succeeded In getting such a procession
on the rim of vase about foot anC
a half in diameter In his conservatory
He brushed off the thread that hat
been laid by the leader as he mounted
the rim and left the creatures stranded
and attached 60 the silken path which
they had laid around the circle. H,
had his circle complete at noon OIL
January 80. He thought that the pro
cession would continue for a littl,
while. two or three hours perhaps, ant
then break up. But the caterpillar
were moving g,instinctively in their pro
cession at 10 o'clock that night wheI
he went to bed. They were still NOV
ing the next morning, and they KEEP
it up, with intervals required for rest
ing, until February 6. or for seven con
secutive days. After making allowance
for the time they were resting, and bas
ing his computation on their rate O
speed he estimated that they wen
around the rim of the vase 335 time
before by merest chance one of tn,
caterpillars fell on in the direction
| whare nine needles could he found n N.
broke the spell. Fabre remarks that tht
department surprised him. though an
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