RAFT OF EGGS OF THE GNAT. 75 



comes filled with water, even though exposed. To 

 put this to the test, I placed half a dozen of these 

 boats upon the surface of a tumbler half-full of water: 

 I then poured upon them a stream of that element 

 from the mouth of a quart bottle held a foot above 

 them. Yet after this treatment, which was so rough 

 as actually to project one out of the glass, I found 

 them floating as before upon their bottoms, and not a 

 drop of water within their cavity.'* We have re- 

 peatedly pushed them to the bottom of a glass of wa- 

 ter; but they always came up immediately to the sur- 

 face apparently un wetted. 



Magnified view of the boat of gnats' eggs. 



We have contented ourselves with giving here only 

 a few examples of the maternal care which is display- 

 ed by insects in depositing their eggs, though we 

 could have filled the volume with similar details. 

 The instincts which are thus displayed are of the 

 most interesting description; and they cannot fail to 

 knpress the most careless observer with a deep reve- 

 rence of that providential wisdom by which they are 

 implanted in these small and feeble creatures for the 

 maintenance of their race. But it is not essential, in 

 order to produce this reverence, to exaggerate the cir- 

 cumstances under which these remarkable peculiari- 

 ties are displayed. The infallibility of the instinct of 

 insects in such cases is, in most books of natural his- 

 tory, maintained to be without exception. < Led by 

 an instinct,' says Kirby and Spence, < far more un 



* Introd. iii, p. 32. 



