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Organic Nature's Riddle 331 



and accomplishments, has been unable to suggest a rational 

 explanation for the accidental origin of these insect com- 

 munities with their marvellously complex instincts. I will 

 confine myself to one more instance of a highly noteworthy 

 instinct, which no one has in any way succeeded in explain- 

 ing. The instance I refer to is that by which an animal, 

 when an enemy approaches, lies quite quiescent and appar- 

 ently helpless, an action often spoken of as ' shamming 

 death.' To evade the force of this remarkable case of 

 instinct, it has been objected that the disposition of the 

 Hmbs adopted by insects which thus act, is not the same 

 as that which the limbs assume when such insects are really 

 dead, and that all species are not when thus acting equally 

 quiescent. The first observation, however, does not concern 

 the matter really at issue. The remarkable thing is not that 

 a helpless insect should assume the position of its own dead, 

 but that such a creature, instead of trying to escape, should 

 adopt a mode of procedure utterly hopeless unless the 

 enemy's attention is thereby effectually eluded. It is 

 impossible that this instinct could have been gradually 

 gained by the elimination of all those individuals who 

 did not practise it, for if the quiescence, whether absolutely 

 complete or not, were not sufficient at once to make the 

 creature elude observation, its destruction would be only 

 the more fully insured by such ineffectual quiescence. The 

 same argument applies to birds which seem to feign lame- 

 ness or other injury. Yet even if we could account for these 

 cases, which as a fact are as yet entirely unaccounted for, 

 it would not do away with the need of recognising the real 

 existence and pecuhar nature of instinct. It would not do 

 so on account both of man's highest and of man's lowest 

 instinctive powers. To speak first of the former : as instinct, 

 such as we have hitherto discovered, is the appointed bridge 

 between mere organic and intellectual animal life, so there 



