Packard.] MENTAL POWERS OF INSECTS. 381 



explanation of that complex of mental processes we call 

 instinct? 



Insects in the first place act from impulse, urged on b}- 

 their appetites ; thus far they arc unconscious automata. 

 These automatic actions are due probably to reflex nervous 

 acts and to the stimulation of their reproductive and other 

 animal appetites upon meeting with the objects of their 

 desires. These reflex actions of the nervous ganglia arc 

 essential for the maintenance of the life of the individual 

 and of the species. They do not come properly under the 

 head of purely instinctive acts. There are a great many 

 acts however, to which tlie term instinctive will appl3\ As 

 an example to show how many different instinctive acts may 

 be performed by the individuals of a single species, I will 

 avail m^'self of the enumerations made by Kirbyand Spence, 

 occasionally condensing his language. Beginning, then, 

 with the formation of the colony. "By one instinct bees 

 are directed to send out scouts previously to their swarming, 

 in search of a suitable abode ; and by another to rush out 

 of the hive after the queen that leads forth the swarm, and 

 follow wherever she bends her course. Having taken pos- 

 session of their new abode, whether of their own selection 

 or prepared for them by the hand of man, a third instinct 

 teaches them to cleanse it from all impurities ; a fourth to 

 collect propolis, and with it to stop up every crevice except 

 the entrance ; a fifth to ventilate the hive for preserving the 

 purit}^ of the air ; and a sixth to keep a constant guard at 

 the door. 



"In constructing the houses and streets of their new cit}^ 

 or the cells and combs, there arc probably several distinct 

 instincts exercised ; but not to leave room for objection, I 

 shall regard them as the result of one onl}- ; 3-ct the opera- 

 tions of polishing the interior of the cells, and soldering 

 their angles and orifices with propolis, which arc sometimes 

 not undertaken for weeks after the cells are built ; and the 



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