ATTENDIX. 075 



all sorts of sounds, and yet that in a state of nature they 

 never display these powers.* 



As tlu-re is often much difficulty in imagining how an 

 inct could first have arisen, it may be worth while to give 

 a few, out of many cases, of occasional and curious habits, 

 which cannot be considered as regular instincts, hut which 

 might, according to our views, give rise to such. Tims, 

 Beveral cases are on recordf of insects which naturally have 

 very different habits having been hatched within the bodies 

 of men — a most remarkable fact considering the temperature 

 to which they have been exposed, and which may explain 

 the origin of the instinct of the Gad-fly or GEstrus. We can 

 see how the closest association might be developed in 

 Swallows, for Lamarck]: saw a dozen of these birds aiding a 

 pair, whose nest had been taken, so effectually that iz was 

 completed on the second day; and from the facts given by 

 Macgillivray§ it is impossible to doubt that the ancient 

 accounts are true of the Martins sometimes associating and 

 entombing alive sparrows which have taken possession of one 

 of their nests. It is well known that the Hive-bees which 

 have been neglected " get a habit of pillaging from their more 

 industrious neighbours," and are then called corsairs; and 

 Huber gives a far more remarkable case of some Hive-bees 

 which took almost entire possession of the nest of a Bumble- 

 bee, and for three weeks the latter went on collecting honey 

 and then regorged it at the solicitation, without any violence, 

 of the Humble-bee.|| We are thus reminded of those Gulls 

 /.■ ttris) which exclusively live by pursuing other gulls and 

 compelling them to disgorge their food.1 



In the Bive-bee actions are occasionally performed which 



• Il!;ukwii]l'i Researches in Zoology, 1884, p, 158. Cuvier long ago 

 remarked tint all the passeres hare apparently a similar structure in their 

 rocal organ* i andyei onlj ■ few, and these the male*, nngj ■bowing that 

 lit t in:: structure doe* not al wavs gi\ <■ rise to r<>rr<'.-|i Hi.lnig habit s. [Conoern< 

 mi' birds whioh imitate sounds When in captivity uol doing so in a state of 

 nature, see p. 222, where there is evi lenoe <>t oertain wild birds imitating the 



o! her S|ir £el, ( 1 . .1 . K.] 



t Rer. L. Jenyns, Obtervatioiu in Vat. II ■■<>., 1846, p. 280. 



* Quoted bj UeoffH 8t. Eiilaire in An**, dot Mu*., tome Lx, p. 47l« 

 § liritUh Hxrdt, rol. iii, |> 591. 



K iri>v and Bpe mtoloffy, roL n, p. 807. The ones given l>y 



Huber is ai i>. 1 19. 



" rii'i-r i* iv. ispect (Maogillivray, Brii t. r, i>. BOO) 



i some "f the sp cies tau only digest i<>od which bai been partially 

 digest i by other birda. 



