INSTINCT. 



21 



of the species or in the conduct of different 

 communities, as we cannot doubt must occur 

 if the inhabitants of every hive were guided, on 

 such unusual occasions, by processes of reason- 

 ing, by observation of the laws of nature, by 

 experience, and anticipation of the effects of 

 their actions. If such mental processes were 

 their guide, we should certainly observe a diffe- 

 rence in the conduct of experienced workers, 

 and of those just emerged from their pupae ; 

 and we should observe some variety in the ex- 

 pedients adopted in different hives for meeting 

 such accidents or difficulties. 2. While the 

 varying operations of these animals for one 

 particular end, the preservation of their own 

 lives and the perpetuation of their species, are 

 planned and combined in such a manner as to 

 indicate consummate intelligence as to what is 

 essential for that purpose, all these indications 

 of instinct are limited to that object, and we 

 see no evidence of the exercise of their senses 

 suggesting to them any other trains of thought, 

 or exciting them to the prosecution of other 

 objects, such as a number of human intellects 

 capable of planning and executing such works 

 would certainly, sooner or later, attempt to 

 accomplish. The degree of uniformity seen in 

 their operations, and the limitation of the ob- 

 jects on which their faculties are exerted, are 

 therefore our reason for thinking (although we 

 do not wish to express ourselves with absolute 

 confidence on the subject) that the mental pro- 

 cesses concerned, even in those the most elabo- 

 rate and artificial of the works of animals, be- 

 long to the same class as those notions of man 

 which are prompted by his instinctive propen- 

 sities as distinguished from his reason. 



At the same time it ought to be stated, that 

 there are many acts of individual animals, or 

 of particular communities, in which we must 

 admit that, although instinct is concerned, it 

 must be guided by mental operations, in which 

 short processes of reasoning, involving certain 

 general ideas, must have been concerned. 

 Several instances, quoted by Mr. Spence, seem 

 hardly to admit of any other interpretation, 

 e. g. the following from Huber. The bees of 

 some of his neighbours protected themselves 

 against the attacks of the death's-head moth, 

 (Sphinx atropos,) by so closing the entrance of 

 the hive with walls, arcades, &c. built of a 

 mixture of wax and propolis, that these ma- 

 rauders could no longer intrude themselves. 

 Pure instinct would have taught " the bees 

 to fortify themselves on the Jirst attack ; if the 

 occupants of a hive had been taken unawares 

 by these gigantic aggressors one night, on the 

 second at least the entrance should have been 

 barricadoed. But it appears clear, from the 

 statement of Huber, that it was not until the 

 hives had been repeatedly attacked, and robbed 

 of nearly their whole slock of honey, that the 

 bees betook themselves to the plan so success- 

 fully adopted for the security of their remaining 

 treasures ; so that reason, taught by experience, 

 seems to have called into action their dormant 

 instinct.'' 



Again, " a German artist, a man of strict vera- 

 city, states that in his journey through Italy he 



was an eye-witness to the following occurrence. 

 He observed a species of Scarabaeus busily en- 

 gaged in making, for the reception of its egg, a 

 pellet of dung, which when finished it rolled to 

 the summit of a small hillock, and repeatedly 

 suffered to tumble down its side, apparently 

 for the sake of consolidating it by the earth 

 which each time adhered to it. During this 

 process the pellet unluckily fell into an adjoin- 

 ing hole, out of which all the efforts of the 

 beetle to extricate it were in vain. After several 

 ineffectual trials, the insect repaired to an ad- 

 joining heap of dung, and soon returned with 

 three of his companions. All four now applied 

 their united strength to the pellet, and at length 

 succeeded in pushing it out ; which being 

 done, the three assistant beetles left the spot 

 and returned to their own quarters."* 



A number of other instances have been col- 

 lected by Mr. Duncan. 



" Professor Fischer has published an account 

 of a hen, which hen made use of the artificial 

 heat of a hotbed to hatch her eggs." 



" A fact is stated by Reaumur of some ants, 

 which, finding they could derive heat from a 

 bee-hive, contrived to avail themselves of it by 

 placing their larvae between the hive and an 

 exterior covering." 



" Dr. Darwin observed a wasp with a large 

 fly nearly as big as itself; finding it too heavy, 

 it cut off the head and the abdomen, and then 

 carried off the remainder, with the wings at- 

 tached to it, into the air : but again finding the 

 breeze act on the wings, and impede its pro- 

 gress, it descended, and deliberately cut off the 

 wings. Instinct might have taught it to cut off 

 the wings of all insects previous to flying away 

 with them ; but here it attempted to fly with 

 the wings on, was impeded by a certain cause, 

 discovered what that cause was, and alighted 

 to remove it. Is not this a comparison of 

 ideas, and deducing consequences from pre- 

 mises ?" 



" M. de la Loubiere, in his relation of Siam, 

 says, that in a part of that kingdom which 

 lies open to great inundations, all the ants make 

 their settlements on trees ; no ants' nests are to 

 be seen any where else. Whereas in our 

 country the ground is their only habitation." 



" We sometimes kill a cockroach," says 

 Ligon in his history of Barbadoes, quoted by 

 Spence, " and throw him on the ground, and 

 mark what the ants will do with him ; his body 

 is bigger than a hundred of them, and yet 

 they will find the means to lay hold of him 

 and lift him up; and having him above 

 ground, away they carry him ; and some go 

 by as ready assistants if any be weary, and 

 some are officers that lead and shew the way ; 

 and if the van-couriers perceive that the body 

 of the cockroach lies across, and will not pass 

 through the hole or arch through which they 

 mean to carry him, order is given, and the body 

 turned endways, and this is done a foot before 

 they come to the hole, and without stop or 

 stay/'f 



* Introd. to Entomology, vol. ii. j). 525. 

 t History of Barbadoes, p. 63. 



