XXVII 

 WONDERS OF INSTINCT 



FEW men have had a better right to speak 

 about instinct than Henri Fabre, whom 

 Darwin in The Origin of Species spoke of as " that 

 inimitable observer," for his genius in scrutiny as 

 well as in sympathy brought him into unusually 

 close acquaintance with the life of insects where 

 instinctive behavior reaches its climax. For 

 whatever be our theory of instinct, there is no 

 doubt that it is seen in its purest and most perfect 

 expression in those creatures which belong to what 

 Sir Ray Lankester calls the " little-brain " type. 

 When we pass from ants, bees, and wasps to the 

 big-brained birds we feel at once a change of air; 

 inference and learning are at work as well as the 

 inborn inspirations of instinct. The appearance of 

 a collection of Fabre's essays under the title The 

 Wonders of Instinct 1 has brought us again to face 

 the old puzzle: What is the nature of instinctive 

 behavior? But let us first ask the humbler ques- 

 tion: In what particular ways is instinct wonderful, 

 where all is wonderful ? 



The first marvel that the great naturalist's dis- 

 closures suggest is the extraordinary perfection 



1 Fisher Unwin. IDS. 6d. net. 

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