346 ACTS OF SEEMING REASON. 



employ bits of paper and other chance materials in lieu of 

 the grains of wood or earth with which nature is accus- 

 tomed to supply them. Another instinctive operation varied 

 to meet exigence is instanced by Reaumur, in the proceedings 

 of a little elm tent-maker, whose tent or case of leaf-skin 

 having been cut open at the side, was sewn up by its little 

 occupant, instead of being supplied by a new one, as unvarying 

 instinct would have prompted. 



Endowed with instincts so subtle, fine, and pliant, what 

 need, it may be asked, have insects to possess even a modi- 

 cum of reason ? That the gift is not useless or superfluous if 

 given them, is to this sufficient answer, and that it is, would 

 appear no unfounded supposition, judging from a variety of 

 acts betokening an intelligence which, if not Reason's very 

 self, bears its very image. 



AYe have given, elsewhere,* Dr. Darwin's often-quoted 

 anecdote of the wasp and the dead fly, whose wings, when 

 found on trial to be obstructive of its convenient transport, 

 the wasp alighted to cut off". Kirby remarks on this relation, 

 " Could any process of ratiocination be more perfect ? Instinct 

 might have taught it" (as we believe it usually does) ' ' to cut 

 off all the wings of all flies previously to flying ; but here it 

 attempted to fly with the wings on, arid was impeded by a cer- 

 tain cause, discovered what that cause was, and alighted to 

 remove it." Did not the discovery of this cause imply also 



* 'Defence of Wasps/ vol. i. p. 226. 



