the true nature of Instinct. 29 



are yet, within that limit, truly astonishing. " With what caution 

 does the hen provide herself a nest in places unfrequented and free 

 from noise and disturbance ? When she has laid her eggs in such 

 a manner that she can cover them, what care does she take in turn- 

 ing them frequently that all parts may partake of the vital warmth ? 

 When she leaves them to provide for her necessary sustenance, 

 how punctually does she return before they have time to cool, 

 and become incapable of producing an animal? In the summer 

 you see her giving herself greater freedoms, and quitting her care 

 for above two hours together, but in winter, when the rigour of 

 the season would chill the principles of life and destroy the 

 young one, she grows more assiduous in her attendance, and stays 

 away but half the time. When the birth approaches, with how 

 much nicety and attention does she help the chick to break its 

 prison; not to. notice her covering it from the injuries of 

 the weather, providing it proper nourishment, and teaching it to 

 help itself; nor to mention her forsaking the nest, if after the 

 usual time of reckoning, the young one does not make its appear- 

 ance. A chemical operation could not be followed with greater 

 art and diligence than is seen in the hatching of a chick ; though 

 there are many other birds that show an infinitely greater sagacity 

 in all the forementioned particulars. 



" But at the same time the hen that has all this seeming in- 

 genuity, (which is indeed absolutely necessary for the propagation 

 of the species), considered in other respects, is without the least 

 glimmerings of thought or common sense. She mistakes a piece 

 of chalk for an egg, and sits upon it in the same manner : she is 

 insensible of any increase or diminution in the number of those 

 she lays : she does not distinguish between her own and those of 

 another species, and when the birth appears, of never so different 

 a bird, will cherish it for her own. In all these circumstances, 

 .which do not carry an immediate regard to the subsistence of 

 herself or her species, she is a very idiot."* 



A similar incongruity, incompatible with the rational exercise 

 of the intellectual principle of foresight, upon the supposition of 

 that principle being proper to the mind of the creature, is ex- 

 * Spectator. No. 120. 



