INSTINCT OF INSECTS. 473 



track of the animals which serve it for food, and at the 

 bottom of which it conceals itself, patiently waiting 

 until some unhappy victim is precipitated down the 

 sides of its cavern ? Yet this is done by the ant-lion 

 and another insect. Or, to omit the endless instances 

 furnished by wasps, ants, the Termites, &c., what ani- 

 mals can be adduced which, like the hive-bee associat- 

 ing- in societies, build regular cities composed of cells 

 formed with geometrical precision, divided into dwells 

 ings adapted in capacity to different orders of the so- 

 ciety, and storehouses for containing a supply of provi- 

 sion ? Even the erections of the beaver, and the pen- 

 sile dwelling of the tailor-bird, must be referred to a 

 less elaborate instinct than that which guides the pro- 

 cedures of these little insects — the complexness and yet 

 perfection of whose operations, when contrasted with 

 the insignificance of the architect, have at all times 

 caused the reflecting observer to be lost in astonish-? 

 ment. 



It is, however, in the deviations of the instincts of in^ 

 sects and their accommodation to circionstanccs that t!ie 

 exquisiteness of these faculties is most decidedly mani- 

 fested. The instincts of the larger animals seem ca- 

 pable of but slight modification. They are either ex- 

 ercised in their full extent or not at all. A bird, when 

 its nest is pulled out of a bush, though it should be 

 laid uninjured close by, never attempts to replace it in 

 its situation ; it contents itself with building another. 

 But insects in similar contingencies often exhibit the 

 most ingenious resources, their instincts surprisingly 

 accommodating themselves to the new circumstances in 

 which they are placed, in a manner more wonderful 



