492 INSTINCT OF INSECTS. 



tion in the continuity or regularity of the whole assem- 

 blage, and no vacant intervals or patching at the junc- 

 tions either of the tubes or the bottoms of the cells ; 

 and you would have set nim no very easy task a task, 

 in short, which it may be doubted if he would satisfac- 

 torily perform in a twelvemonth, though gifted with a 

 clear head and a competent store of geometrical know- 

 ledge, and which, if destitute of these requisites, it may 

 be safely asserted that he would never perform . at all. 

 How then can we imagine it possible that this difficult 

 problem, and others of a similar kind, can be so com- 

 pletely and exactly solved by animals of which some are 

 not two days old, others not a week, and probably none 

 a year ? The conclusion is irresistible it is not reason 

 but instinct that is their guide. 



The second head under which I proposed contrasting 

 the instincts of insects with those of the larger animals, 

 was that of their number in the same individual. In the 

 latter this is for the most part very limited, not exceed- 

 ing (if we omit those common to almost all animated 

 beings) eight or ten distinct instincts. Thus in the com- 

 mon duck, one instinct leads it at its birth from the egg- 

 to rush to the water ; another to seek its proper food ; 

 a third to pair with its mate ; a fourth to form a nest ; 

 a fifth to sit upon its eggs till hatched ; a sixth to assist 

 the young ducklings in extricating themselves from the 

 shell ; and a seventh to defend them when in danger un- 

 til able to provide for themselves : and it would not be 

 easy, as far as my knowledge extends, to add many more 

 distinct instinctive actions to the enumeration, or to ad- 

 duce many species of the superior classes of animals, en- 

 dowed with a greater number. 



