HYBERNATION OF INSECTS. 463 



they ought to be led by the cessation of cold to quit 

 them. But, as has been before observed, we have 

 often days in winter milder than at the period of hy- 

 bernating, and in which insects are so roused from 

 their torpidity as to run about niiiibly when molested 

 in their retreats ; yet though their irritability must 

 have been increased by a two or three months inac- 

 tivity and abstinence, they do not leave them, but 

 quietly remain until a fresh accession of cold again in- 

 duces insensibility. 



In short, to refer the hybernation of insects to tlie 

 mere direct influence of cold, is to suppose one of the 

 most important acts of their existence given up to the 

 blind guidance of feelings which in the variable cli- 

 mates of Europe would be leading- them into perpe- 

 tual and fatal errors — which in sprijig would be in- 

 ducing them to quit their ordinary occupations, and 

 prepare retreats and habitations for winter to be quit- 

 ted again as soon as a few fine days had dispelled 

 the frosty feel of a May week ; and in a mild winter's 

 day, when the thermometer, as is often the case, rises 

 to 50° or 55", would lure them to an exposure that 

 must destroy them. It is not, we may rest assured, to 

 such a deceptions guide that tiie Creator has intrusted 

 the safety of so important a part of his creatures : 

 their destinies are regulated by feelings far less liable 

 to err. 



What, you will ask, is this regulator? I ansuer. 

 Instinct — that faculty to which so many other of tlie 

 equally surprising actions of insects are to be referred ; 

 and which alone can adequately account for the phe- 

 nomena to be explained. '»V'hy, indeed, should we 



