514 Instinct oj Animals.- — Pulmonary Organ in Insects. 



returned from a two years' residence in Caucasia, describes 

 the Uerox of that country as being essentially different from 

 that of Lithuania. — W. Weissenborn. — Weimar, Aug. 9th, 

 1838. 



Instinct of Animals. — The following- curious statement is 

 copied from a letter which the late William Tischbein, the 

 well-known animal -painter, wrote in explanation of one of 

 his most beautiful coloured sketches, now in the possession 

 of Mr. Meyer, of Hildburghausen. It represents five little 

 red mice, in the presence of a young cat. " That instinct is 

 an inherent or innate quality of animals, is clearly proved by 

 experience. The cat possesses the instinct of catching and 

 eating mice, and the mouse that of shunning the cat as its 

 most dangerous enemy. Once, in Rome, I happened to open 

 a drawer which T seldom had occasion to use, when I saw a 

 mouse jumping out of it, and found among the papers a nest 

 with five young mice, naked and blind, and of a pale flesh 

 colour. I placed them on a table, handled them, &c, and 

 they evinced no symptoms of fright, nor any inclination to 

 get away, but only appeared eager to approach each other 

 for the sake of warmth. There happened to be in the house 

 a very young cat, which had never tasted anything but milk ; 

 I placed it near the little mice, by way of experiment, but to 

 my astonishment it did not even look at them, nor perceive 

 them, even when I turned its eyes in the proper direction, 

 until at last, when I had repeatedly approached its nose to 

 the mice, it suddenly caught a scent which made it tremble 

 with desire. The propensity became more and more violent, 

 and the cat smelled at the mice, touching them with its nose, 

 when all at once, the pale-coloured little creatures became 

 suffused with blood, and began to make great exertions to 

 get out of the way of imminent danger, whilst the cat as ea- 

 gerly followed them. — Id. 



Pulmonary Orifice in Insects. — In searching for facts to 

 illustrate a course of entomological lectures that I have had 

 in preparation some months, I discovered in the abdomen of 

 Abraxas grossulariata, a cavity in the venter, immediately 

 behind the mesopedes. It may be seen in most insects, either 

 on the venter, or the sides thereabout ; some have it guarded 

 by a scale, others fringed with hairs ; a tensely stretched film 

 may be perceived within it in Plusia Gamma. It occurs in 

 Smerinthus populi, Musca domestica, Vespa vulgaris, Libel- 

 lula depressa, Mamestra brassica, &c. By examining the 

 interior we shall find it to assist in the aeration of the blood. 

 — Leonard W. Clarke. 



