QUALITY OF INSECT MIND. 347 



memory, and a gain of knowledge from experience, by which 

 alone the W 7 asp could have been taught, or reminded, that the 

 wings of the fly were the impediments to his flight have given 

 him at least reason to suspect it from the greater facility 

 with which he had transported bodies that were wingless ? 



A trick, asserted by Huber to be on occasion resorted to by 

 humble-bees for the purpose of extracting honey from flowers 

 that are deeply tubular, has been adduced as another striking 

 instance of the capability of insects to profit by experience. 

 These humming honey -suckers usually extract the nectar from 

 the natural opening at top of the beau and other tubular 

 flowers ; but when by the breadth of their shoulders forbidden 

 entrance into this narrow passage, they drill a hole with their 

 proboscis through the calyx right into the tube, and in this 

 manner tap their luscious wine, while the less bulky Bacchanals 

 of the same species quaff it in the ordinary way. It is inferred 

 from this proceeding that the larger bees, having found on 

 trial that they could not reach the nectar from the top, have 

 recourse to a more ingenious method of getting to the bottom 

 of the reservoir. 



On the whole, it would appear that the intellectual light 

 with wdiich insects are endowed be it instinct solely, or 

 instinct aided by reason exactly resembles in kind, while in 

 many of its exhibitions it more than equals in degree, that 

 bestowed on other animals, however we may incline, naturally, 

 to assign immeasurable superiority to the intelligence softened 



