Summary view of the Brute Nature. 365 



other and another shot was discharged ; and thus the fowler often 

 levelled the whole flock, without one of them attempting to 

 escape." " Now, however," continues Mr. Bingley, " they regard 

 us with aversion : wherever they haunt, one of their number, it is 

 said, is always appointed to watch while the rest are employed in 

 feeding ; and the moment he perceives the least danger, he gives 

 a loud scream, in sound not much unlike a trumpet, and instantly 

 the whole flock is on wing. They feed in silence ; but, when thus 

 roused, they all join in the noise, and fill the air with their 

 screams."* To those who are disposed to maintain that animals 

 are possessed of a degree of reason, I would address the question, 

 — Is this conduct of the Flamingo an evidence of Reason or of 

 Instinct ? If of Reason, we may as fairly claim it for the young 

 Foxes mentioned in the former part of this Essay, whose vicinity to 

 the abodes of Man awakened a more acute principle of discrimi- 

 nation, even before they had left the litter; or for the Ants who 

 made choice of the surface of Reaumur's glass bee-hives, on ac- 

 count of the equability of the heat for hatching their progeny, and 

 planted their colonies between the surface of the hive and the 

 wooden shutter ;* another instance of particular and contingent 

 adaptation, too strong to be mistaken. 



Upon the whole, then, it appears to me, that a Contingent as 

 well as an Invariable Instinct is clearly manifest ; and that it can- 

 not be denied without ascribing a proper intelligence in cases 

 which are incompatible with its existence. 



The summary of the view I have attempted to give of the 

 Brute Nature is this : — That the Brute Mind is constituted by the 

 union of a faculty receptive of influent desires, and a faculty re- 

 ceptive of corresponding Perceptions ; and that Brutes are the 

 subjects of the operation of essential Will and Intelligence, winch 

 controul their Natures in various modes ; — and which are mani- 

 fested in analogous forms of Instinct, as observed in the actions of 

 the Brute Kingdom : — That Brutes are influenced by intermedi- 

 ate agencies between Nature and the Creator, whose Wisdom 

 permits that the evil as well as the good principles of Will and 



* Anim. Biog. vol. ii. p. 486. 



+ Kirby and Spence, vol. ii. p. 519. 



