INSTINCT OF INSECTS. 50') 



by every generation of bees since the creation of the 

 \Vorld, and as perfectly a day or two after their birth 

 •s.?, at any subsequent period. And as the very essence 

 oi' instinct consists in the determinate character of the 

 actions to which it gives birth, it is clear that every 

 (sihtinctly different action must be referred to a distinct 

 instinct. Few will dispute that the instinct which 

 leads a duck to resort to the water is a different instinct 

 from that which leads her to sit upon her eggs; for the 

 hen though endowed w ith one is not with the other. 

 In fact, they are as distinct and unconnected as the 

 senses of sight and smell ; and it appears to me that it 

 would be as contrary to philosophical accuracy of lan- 

 i^uage, in the former case to call the two instincts mo- 

 difications of each other, as in the latter so to designate 

 the two senses ; and as we say that a deaf and blind man 

 has fewer senses than other men, so strictly we ought not 

 to speak of instinct as one faculty (though to avoid cir- 

 cumlocution I have myself often employed this common 

 mode of expression), or say that one insect has a greater 

 or less share of instinct than another, but more or fewer 

 instincts. — That it is notahvays easy to determine what 

 actions are to be referred to a distinct instinct and what 

 to a modification of an instinct, 1 am very ready to ad- 

 mit; but this is no solid ground for regarding all in- 

 ^i'ullcts as modifications of some one principle. It i:? 

 often equally difficult to fix the limits between instinct 

 and reason ; but we are not on this account justified in 

 deeming them the same. 



This multitude of instincts in the same individual, 

 becomes more wonderful when considered in ariothcr 

 point of view. Were they constantly to follow each 



