NUMBER XVIII 

 WONDERS OF INSTINCT 



INSTINCTIVE activities are the outcome of 

 inborn skill, which does not require learning 

 or practice, though it may be improved by both. 

 They are seen in their purest and most perfect ex- 

 pression in those creatures which belong to what 

 Sir Ray Lankester calls the " little-brain " type, 

 namely animals like ants, bees, and wasps. When 

 we pass from these to the big-brained birds we feel 

 at once a change of air ; inference and learning are 

 at work as well as the inborn inspirations of instinct. 

 In what particular ways are instinctive activities 

 wonderful, where all is wonderful ? 



The first marvel is the extraordinary perfection 

 which instinctive behaviour often exhibits. Take 

 the story that the great French naturalist Henri 

 Fabre has told us of one of the solitary wasps, 

 which we shall call the Fury. It shows extraordin- 

 ary skill both in hunting and in building. With 

 minute pebbles, and with earth moistened with the 

 juice of its mouth, it builds a finely -finished cupola 

 about three-quarters of an inch in height ; the out- 

 side is covered with glistening grains of quartz 

 or sometimes with tiny snail shells ; the orifice at 



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