22 INSTINCT IN CHOICE OF FOOD. 



composed of gradations, which are so closely linked 

 together, that it is very difficult to define the limits of 

 the different classes. 



" Another illustration of the wonderful manner in 

 which pure instinct operates, is the choice which dif- 

 ferent animals make of plants for food. Smellie* re- 

 marks, that there is hardly a plant that is not rejected 

 as food by some animals, and ardently desired by 

 others. The horse yields the common water-hemlock 

 to the goat, and the cow the long-leafed water-hemlock 

 to the sheep. The goat again leaves the aconite or 

 wolf's bane to the horse. The euphorbia, or spurge, so 

 noxious to man, is greedily devoured by some of the 

 insect tribes. The leaves of the broad-leafed kalmia 

 are feasted upon by the deer and the round-horned 

 elk, but are mortally poisonous to sheep, to homed 

 cattle, to horses, and to man. The bee extracts 

 honey from this flower, without injury to itself; but 

 the man who partakes of this honey after it is depo- 

 sited in the hive-cells falls a victim to his repast. In 

 the autumn and winter of the year 1790, at Philadel- 

 phia, extensive mortality was occasioned among those 

 who had eaten of the honey collected in the neigh- 

 bourhood of that city, or had feasted on the common 

 American pheasant, or pinnated grouse, as we call it. 

 The attention of the American government was ex- 

 * Vol. i. page 350. 



