INSTINCT OF INSECTS. 4-67 



generally, I pass on to contrast in several particulars the 

 instincts of insects with those of other animals; and thus 

 to bring together some remarkable instances of the 

 former which have not hitherto been laid before you, as 

 well as to deduce from some of those already related, in- 

 ferences to which it did not fall in with my design before 

 to direct your attention. This contrast may be conve- 

 niently made under the three heads of — the exquisite- 

 ness of their instincts — their number — and their extra- 

 ordinary development. 



The instincts of by far the majority of the superior 

 animals are of a very simple kind, only directing them 

 to select suitable food ; to propagate their species ; to 

 defend themselves and their young from harm ; to ex- 

 press their sensations by various vocal modulations; and 

 to a few other actions which need not be particularized. 

 Others of the larger animals, in addition to these simpler 

 instinctive propensities, are gifted with more extensive 

 powers ; storing up food for their winter consumption, 

 and building nests or habitations for their young, which 

 they carefully feed and tend. 



All these instincts are common to insects, a great pro- 

 portion of which are in like manner confined to these. 

 But a very considerable number of this class are endowed 

 with instincts of an exqiiisiteness to which the higher ani- 

 mals can lay no claim. What bird or fish, for example, 

 catches its prey by means of nets as artfully woven and 

 as admirably adapted to their purposes as any that ever 

 fisherman or fowler fabricated ? Yet such nets are con- 

 structed by the race of spiders. What beast of prey 

 thinks of digging a pit-fall in the track of the animals 

 which serve it for food, and at the bottom of which it 

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