APART FROM INSTINCT. 91 



The hen, the cat, the lioness, and bear, also the whale, fur- 

 nish familiar examples of such affection superadded to instinct ; 

 and parallel demonstrations of the like endowment are not 

 wanting, though generally overlooked or disallowed, in some 

 tribes of the insect world. 



The prospective skill and care exhibited by solitary bees 

 and wasps in the construction of their nurseries is pro- 

 bably, as with birds in the building of their nests, entirely of 

 an instinctive character ; but we must assign, surely, one of a 

 higher description to certain other features of insect maternity, 

 with a few of which we shall conclude our imperfect sketch. 



As in the instances of the quadrupeds above named, this 

 love of offspring does not seem the most strongly developed in 

 the mild and gentle of the insect tribes such as are considered 

 to represent the grazing animals, but in those, especially, of 

 fierce and predatory habits, as the cruel spider, the devouring 

 water-scorpion, the already-noticed murderous wasp, and the, 

 occasionally, cannibal earwig the cats, sharks, bears, and 

 tigers of the insect crew. 



It might not so much excite our wonder to find the large 

 feathery wings of the soft and beautiful butterfly, or those of 

 the downy moth, spread, dove-like, over their eggs or infant 

 broods, to hatch or cherish them. These, indeed, are not 

 without their maternal instincts wonderfully displayed. The 

 butterfly deserts her delicate repast among the flowers to de- 

 posit her eggs on the (to herself) uninviting cabbage, which is 



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