INSTINCT OF INSECTS. 491 



of mitys ? " Si seulement ils elevoient ime fois des ca- 

 banes quarrees," (says Bonnet when speaking as to 

 what faculty the works of the beaver are to be referred,) 

 " mais ce sont eternellement des cabanes rondes ou 

 ovales^:" — and so we might say of the phenomena in 

 question : — Show us but one instance of bees having sub- 

 stituted mud or mortar for mitys, pissoceros, or pro- 

 polis, or wooden props for waxen ties, and there could 

 be no doubt of their being here guided by reason. But 

 since no sucli instance is on record ; since they are still 

 confined to the same limits — however surprising the 

 range of these limits — as they were two thousand years 

 ago ; and since the bees emerged from their pupae but a 

 few hours before, will set themselves as adroitly to work 

 and pursue their operations as scientifically as their 

 brethren, who can boast the experience of a long life of 

 twelve months duration ; — we must still regard these 

 actions as variations of instinct. 



In the second place, no degree of reason that we can 

 with any share of probability attribute to bees, could be 

 competent to the performance of labours so complicated 

 as those we have been considering, and which if the re- 

 sult of reason, would involve the most extensive and va- 

 ried knowledge in the agents. Suppose a man to have 

 attained by long practice the art of modelling wax into 

 a congeries of uniform hexagonal cells, with pyramidal 

 bottoms composed each of three rhombs, resembling the 

 cells of workers among bees. Let him now be set to 

 make a congeries of similar but larger cells (answering 

 to the male cells), and unite these with the former by 

 other hexagonal cells, so that there should be no disrup- 

 ' (Etc res, ix. 159. 



