simply
digging at random. Circumstances favoured him; and that is all. We
must not put it to his credit that he succeeded where all the others
failed.

We must also beware of attributing to the Necrophori a duller
understanding than is usual in insect psychology. I find the ineptness
of the undertaker in all the Beetles reared under the wire cover, on
the bed of sand into which the rim of the dome sinks a little way.
With very rare exceptions, fortuitous accidents, not one thinks of
circumventing the barrier by way of the base; not one manages to get
outside by means of a slanting tunnel, not even though he be a miner
by profession, as are the Dung-beetles _par excellence_. Captives
under the wire dome and anxious to escape, Sacred Beetles, Geotrupes,
Copres, Gymnopleuri,[3] Sisyphi,[4] all see about them the free space,
the joys of the open sunlight; and not one thinks of going round under
the rampart, which would present no difficulty to their pickaxes.

[Footnote 3: Cf. _The Sacred Beetle and Others_: chap.
vii.--_Translator's Note_.]

[Footnote 4: Cf. _idem_: chap. xv.--_Translator's Note_.]

Even in the higher ranks of animality, examples of similar mental
obfuscation are not lacking. Audubon[5] tells us how, in his days,
wild Turkeys were caught in North America. In a clearing known to be
frequented by these birds, a great cage was constructed with stakes
driven into the ground. In the centre of the enclosure opened a short
tunnel, which dipped under the palisade and returned to the surface
outside the cage by a gentle slope, which was open to the sky. The
central opening, wide enough to give a bird free passage, occupied
only a portion of the enclosure, leaving around it, against the circle
of stakes, a wide unbroken zone. A few handfuls of maize were
scattered in the interior of the trap, as well as round about it, and
in particular along the sloping path, which passed under a sort of
bridge and led to the centre of the contrivance. In short, the
Turkey-trap presented an ever-open door. The bird found it in order to
enter, but did not think of looking for it in order to go out.

[Footnote 5: John James Audubon (1780-1851), the noted American
ornithologist, of French descent, author of _Birds of America_
(1827-1830) and _Ornithological Biography_ (1831-1839).--_Translator's
Note_.]

According to the famous American ornithologist, the Turkeys, lured by
the grains of maize, descended the insidious slope, en