PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 137 



divided between two ; so that a more contracted dwell- 

 ing and a smaller share of nutriment seem to prevent 

 the development of the ovaries. 



The following observations, mostly taken from an 

 essay of the celebrated anatomist John Hunter, in the 

 P kilo sop] deal Transactions, since they are intimately 

 connected with the subject that we are now consider- 

 ing", will not be here misplaced. In animals just bom, 

 or very young, there are no peculiarities of shape, ex- 

 clusive of the primary distinctions, by which one sex 

 maybe known from the other. Thus secondary distinc- 

 tive characters, such as the beard in men, and the 

 breasts in women, are produced at a certain period of 

 life; and these secondary characters, in soue instances, 

 are changed for those of the other sex ; which does not 

 arise from any action at the first formation, but takes 

 place when the great command " Increase and multi- 

 tiply" ceases to operate. Thus women in advanced 

 life are sometimes distinguished by beards ; and after 

 they have done laying, hen-birds occasionally assume 

 the plumage of the cock : this has been observed more 

 than once by ornithologists, more particularly with re- 

 spect to the pheasant and the pea-hen ^. — For females to 

 assume the secondary characters of males, seems cer- 

 tainly a more violent change, than for a worker bee, 

 which may be regarded as a sterile female, in conse- 

 quence of a certain process, to assume the secondary 

 characters of a fertile female. 



, With respect to the variations of instinct and cha- 

 racter which result from the different modes of rear- 



' PhUos. IVfins. n02. vtii. 167, Hunter on certain Paris nf the Animal 

 (Ecmimuji p.L>j. Latham, Sijnuj]S. ii, 672. t. 60, 



