NUMBER XVII 

 EXAMPLES OF INSTINCT 



WHEN we pass in the Animal Kingdom from 

 brainless types, like polyps and star-fishes, 

 to creatures of higher degree, like crabs and ants 

 and spiders, we find ourselves in a new world. 

 There are still many instances of the old, almost 

 automatic " answers-back," illustrated when a sea- 

 anemone's tentacles close on the food, but there is 

 a new kind of behaviour much more complicated, 

 which is called instinctive. 



When a shore-crab is carried over the beach and 

 then laid down, it makes for the sea in its own 

 peculiar sideways fashion. Light and wind and 

 slope seem to have no effect ; it makes for the 

 moisture of the sea. This is probably the outcome 

 of an engrained " answer-back " to certain messages 

 from the outside world, but it is on the border-line 

 of instinct. 



When a worker-bee, coming out of the hive for 

 the first time, flies to a flower which it has never seen 

 before, and tackles it deftly, collecting pollen and 

 nectar, it illustrates instinctive behaviour. We say 

 that it does its work " as to the manner born " ; 



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