The Mason-bees whose cups I used to empty as and when they brushed off the pollen-dust and disgorged the honey-paste gave proof of similar inconsistencies: I would see them laying the egg in the empty cell and then closing the cell as though the provisions were still there. One point alone used to cause me some anxiety; my plug of cotton-wool left behind it, on the wall against which it rubbed, a smear of honey whose smell might deceive the insect by concealing the absence of the victuals. The coarser sense of touch was dumb while the finer sense of smell continued to speak. In the case of the famous statue of which Condillac [44] tells us, the sole stimulant of mental activity was the scent of a rose. The insect’s intelligence is certainly very differently equipped; nevertheless we may ask ourselves whether, in a Bee, the scent of the honey would not be so far predominant as to cheat other impressions. This, at all events, would explain the laying of the egg in a cell containing no provisions, but still full of their good smell; it would explain the scrupulous sealing of the cell in which the larva is doomed to die of starvation. To avoid those foolish objections, the last resource of an opponent at bay, I should therefore like something better than the absurd action of the Mason-bees. And this the Pelopæus has just given us. Here we have no fragrant smear left behind by the victuals withdrawn, no vestige than can conceal the absence of provisions from the mother. The Spider whom my tweezers are about to seize at the bottom of the cell leaves no trace of her temporary sojourn, nor does the egg extracted with the first morsel, so that the Wasp cannot fail to be apprised of the void created in her cell, if she be capable of being apprised of anything. It makes no difference; nothing alters her habitual course of action. During two days, she brings a score of items, one by one, as each preceding item is removed; the stubborn hunt is prolonged, on behalf of an egg which has been absent from the outset; and at length the door of the cell is closed with the same care as under normal conditions.