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Observations on the Large Brown Hornet of New South Wales, 

 with reference to Instinct. By the Rev. John M*Garvie, 

 A.M. In a Letter to James Dunlop, Esq. Paramatta*. 



JL/URING occasional hours of relaxation from more import- 

 ant engagemeilts, I have amused myself of late in studying the 

 habits and history of the large brown and black hornets of this 

 country, which I know you have also done wUh much success. 

 But as my views on the subject do not entirely coincide with 

 yours, I cannot permit this, perhaps the last opportunity for 

 many months, to escape without making a few remarks upon it, 

 especially as the excellent microscope I received from you (a 

 present of inestimable value in this country), will enable me to 

 prosecute the subject with more precision than I have yet been 

 able to accomplish. 



There are few subjects that have occasioned more discussion to 

 the naturalist and the moralist than instinct. The one, desirous 

 of resting his knowledge on a few mechanical principles, is unwil- 

 ling to admit instinct as a direct operating agent in animals, and 

 particularly in insects, if any cause can be discovered that will 

 account, even imperfectly, for their operations. The moralist, 

 on the other hand, assigns to instinct every thing that indicates 

 an ultimate design, though it cannot be a question with any 

 man, that the same veneration for the Author of Nature would 

 be excited, were every act of instinct reduced to the commonest 

 laws of matter and motion. For He who implanted instinct, on 

 the common view of the matter, must have implanted also the 

 power of acting in conformity to known laws ; and these actions, 

 of coui-se, become infallible proofs, that the laws which -these 

 individuals follow in their operation, existed before the indivi- 

 duals themselves ; giving thus a proof, if any were wanting, 

 that both were created by the same beneficent hand. Instinct, 

 therefore, we conceive, should always be considered as assisted 

 or modelled by organic structure. 



Of all the works of instinct, none have excited more sur- 

 prise than those exhibited by Bees, Hornets, and other creatures 

 of the same kind, which form their hexagonal cells with such 

 • Read before the Wernerlan Natural History Society 12th January 1828. 



