It used to be said—and may be still by that large class of people who are for ever making false parallels and artificial distinctions—that man was the only animal that made intelligent use of an instrument, but Darwin instanced a monkey cracking a nut with a stone, and an elephant breaking off a bough to fan itself with. Here, in an insect, we have a case which is perhaps even more to the point—more extraordinary, that is to say; for certainly the idea of flattening and pressing down earth over a general surface, and of taking something to do it with, seems a little less obvious than that of cracking a nut, in a similar manner, and therefore to require more thought in the planner of such a process. No wonder that the delighted witnesses of this interesting fact flung themselves on the ground on each side of the unconscious inspirer of their wonder, in order to have a better sight of it; but that a previous observer of the same thing should have waited a year before publishing what he had seen, because he feared such a statement would not be believed,[87] is to my mind a display of prudence almost as wonderful, though not nearly so edifying, as that of _Ammophila_ herself. If we are not to make known what we see, because people who believe in their own and nobody else’s eyesight are not likely to credit it, how is evidence to accumulate for the benefit of the more intelligent part of the community? It is only of this small minority that we should think, or, rather, we should not think of anything but the truth, where truth is concerned.