INSTINCT 93 



that was unable to drag away the grasshopper because 

 it could not find antenna 1 to take hold of, and the spider 

 that made its subterranean home conspicuous by cover- 

 ing- it with moss, are examples of the limitation of in- 

 stinct. The activity of certain insects seems to go be- 

 yond the bounds of instinct and enter the realm of 

 thought. Such insects are credited with intelligence. 



Instinct and Reason. A colony of bees finding a dead 

 snail within their hive, endeavored to drag it out. This 

 \vas an instinctive act, since it was instinctive with them 

 to repel all intruders, but when they were unable to re- 

 move the snail thev at once covered it over with wax 



</ 



and hermetically sealed it in its position. This was no 

 longer an act of instinct, but an act of reason. It is 

 evident here that the nerve centers acted independently 

 of any past experience; that is, there was reason shown 

 and intelligent action manifested. 



The following may be considered the chief instinctive 

 acts : Choice of food, partaking of food, capture of prey, 

 building of homes or nests, storing provisions cither for 

 themselves or their offspring, spinning cocoons of a defi- 

 nite form. When a customary mode of performing 

 these instinctive acts is changed, the change is likely to 

 be due to intelligent adaptation to new modes of life. 

 Insects which for many generations have built their 

 nests in a certain kind of places, such as under rocks, 

 forsake these places and choose better adapted places 

 under the eaves of houses. Of all the intelligent acts the 

 one given elsewhere (p. US) stands among the first ; that 

 is the case of Ammophila using a stone to pound the 

 earth over her nest. 



