INSTINCT. 



13 



formed. And if, with Darwin and some others, 

 we doubt of the existence of a blind instinctive 

 propensity as the cause of these movements, we 

 have no resource but to ascribe them to a very 

 high decree of intelligence, combined with 

 much mental resolution, and extending to all or 

 almost all the individuals of the species, enabling 

 them to foresee evils that are still remote, and 

 determining them to undergo labour, fatigue, 

 and danger in order to avoid them. It has also 

 been repeatedly ascertained that the same indi- 

 viduals return after their six months of absence 

 and long voyages, to the very spots where they 

 had been brought forth, implying a power of 

 discernment and recollection which appear to 

 us quite inconceivable. Of such high qua- 

 lities of mind we see no indications in the other 

 actions of these birds, excepting only in their 

 preparations for the nurture of their young ; and 

 if they really possessed these qualities, we might 

 expect with perfect confidence to see them 

 devise many contrivances for their comfort and 

 convenience, and to witness variations and im- 

 provements in habits, which we know from the 

 writings of the ancient naturalists to have been 

 perfectly uniform and stationary at least since 

 the time of Aristotle. 



There are some of the Mammalia, chiefly of 

 the order Ruminantia, which likewise perform 

 periodical migrations in the natural state, as has 

 been particularly noticed in America, of the 

 bison, the musk-ox, and rein-deer. A similar 

 instinct has been observed in the quaggas in 

 Africa ; and a singular observation, as shewing 

 a variation of instinct according to varying cir- 

 cumstances, was made by Dr. Richardson, that 

 the American black bear, when lean, and from 

 that cause unfitted for hybernation, migrates in 

 severe winters from the northward into the 

 United States. 



The periodical migrations of fishes appear to 

 be designed for the benefit of their offspring, 

 not for their own preservation; and there are 

 other migrations, in immense numbers, of various 

 kinds of animals which are not periodical, and 

 of which the object is still obscure, but which 

 do not fall under the present head. 



II. Of instincts Jo?'' the propagation and 

 support of offspring. Of the very curiously 

 varied instincts of animals connected with 

 the propagation and support of their off- 

 spring, we need not dwell on those which 

 must necessarily attend the very various 

 kinds of organs (so well arranged and de- 

 scribed by Cuvier), by which the impreg- 

 nation of the ova in the different tribes of 

 animals is effected the instincts, e. g. which 

 prompt most male fishes to impregnate eggs 

 already laid, and many reptiles to impregnate 

 them at the moment of their emission from 

 the body of the female, or which guide the 

 different warm-blooded animals in the different 

 modes of their sexual intercourse. The in- 

 stincts which enable animals to anticipate and 

 provide for the wants of their young are still 

 more varied, and imply mental processes of 

 greater complexity. The most important of 

 these may be referred to the following heads. 



1. This is probably one object of the migra- 



tions of birds above-mentioned, and certainly 

 the main object of the migrations of great 

 swarms of fishes, both in the sea, and of those 

 which ascend the rivers ; to which the same 

 observations, as to the return to the same spot 

 whence they had formerly departed, and as to 

 the labours and hazard which the instinct im- 

 pels them to incur, are in many instances appli- 

 cable. 



" The cod-fah makes for the coast at spawn- 

 ing time, going northward ; this takes place 

 towards the end of winter, or the beginning of 

 spring. 



" The mackarel hybernates in the Arctic, 

 Antarctic, and Mediterranean Seas, where it is 

 stated to select certain depths of the sea called 

 by the natives Barachouas, which are so land- 

 locked, that the water is as calm at all times as 

 in the most sheltered pools. 



" It is in these that the mackarel, directed by 

 instinct, pass the winter. In the spring they 

 emerge in infinite shoals from their hiding 

 places, and proceed southward for the purposes 

 of depositing their eggs in more genial seas. 



" What the mackarel is' to the north of 

 Europe, the thunny is to the south. It de- 

 posits its esgs in May and June, when it enters 

 the Mediterranean, seeking the shores in shoals 

 arranged in the form of a parallelogram, or as 

 some say, a triangle, and making a great noise 

 and stir. 



" The herring may be said to inhabit the 

 arctic seas of Europe, Asia, and America, from 

 whence they annually migrate at different times 

 in search of food, and to deposit their spawn. 

 Their shoals consist of millions of myriads, 

 and are many leagues in width, many fathoms 

 in thickness, and so dense that the fishes touch 

 each other." " The largest and strongest are 

 said to lead the shoals, which seem to move in 

 a certain order, and to divide into bands as 

 they proceed, visiting the shores of various 

 islands and countries, and enriching their in- 

 habitants." " They seek places for spawning 

 where stones and marine plants abound, against 

 which they rub themselves alternately on each 

 side, all the while moving their fins with great 

 rapidity." 



" In temperate climates the salmon quits the 

 sea early in the spring, when the waves are 

 driven by a strong wind against the river 

 currents." " They leave the sea in numerous 

 bands formed with great regularity. The 

 largest individual, which is usually a female, 

 takes the lead, and is followed by others of the 

 same sex, two and two, each pair being at 

 the distance of from three to six feet from the 

 preceding one ; next come the old, and after 

 them the young males in the same order." 

 " They employ only three months in ascending 

 to the sources of the Maraguon, the current of 

 which is remarkably rapid, which is at the 

 rate of nearly forty miles a day ; in a smooth 

 stream or lake their progress would increase in 

 a four-fold ratio. Their tail is a very powerful 

 organ, and its muscles have wonderful energy ; 

 by placing it in their mouth, they make of it 

 a very elastic spring, for, letting it go with 

 violence, they raise themselves in the air to the 



