ud-dauber" last summer
built her nest on the ceiling of my room in one corner. The windows of
this room remained open night and day during the hot summer months, so
her nest was easy of access. One day, while the wasp was busy about her
home, I closed all the windows and awaited developments. At length she
flew toward a window, against which she landed with a thump which for a
moment or two completely dazed her. The wasp soon discovered that she
was barred from the outer world by some transparent, translucent
substance; she then proceeded on a voyage of discovery, flying around
the room and searching here and there and everywhere for an exit. She
finally found a small hole in a window casing which communicated with
the outside; through this she made her escape from the room. Upon
opening the window I saw her examining the passage through which she had
come, going through it repeatedly. She finally flew away, but shortly
returned with a pellet of mud. Notwithstanding the fact that all the
windows were then open, the wasp went at once to the hole in the casing,
through which she made her way into the room and thence to her nest on
the ceiling. She never again, so far as I was able to ascertain, made
an exit or an entrance through the windows, but always made use of the
hole in the casing. This little creature undoubtedly gave unmistakable
evidences of ratiocination; she found that a transparent barrier had
been placed in her way--a barrier so translucent and transparent that
she could not see it until she actually felt it. She therefore concluded
that she would never again risk injury by flying through the windows.
What is most remarkable about this instance is that this insect derived
her knowledge from a single experience, and at once profited thereby.
The wasp remembered the event--her experience with the window glass--and
avoided a like occurrence by going through the hole in the casing. Her
experience was a bit of education.

There are many people alive to-day, probably, who saw the trained fleas
which were on exhibition in the large cities of the United States some
thirty or forty years ago. These little creatures had been taught to
perform military evolutions, to dance, to draw miniature carts, to feign
death, etc., at the command or signal of their owner and trainer. The
mere fact that they possessed memory enough to learn, retain, and
remember their lessons is not proof positive of reason, but the fact of
their h