268 HABITS AND INSTINCTS OF ANIMALS. CHAP. IX. 



for which they undertook their journey, they slowly re- 

 turn, weak and exhausted ; and not long after, millions 

 of the little crabs, which have been hatched on the shore, 

 may be seen making their way up to the mountains.* 



CHAP. IX. 



ON IMPERFECT SOCIETIES OF ANIMALS. 



(281.) THE social principle so vitally essential to the 

 welfare and happiness of man, and, for that reason, more 

 developed in him than in any created being assumes, 

 in the animal world, a variety of modifications. With 

 some, it is only sufficient to prompt the species to search 

 out its mate, and to provide for their infant progeny : 

 these, in truth, may be called solitary and unsocial 

 animals, solely brought together by the impulse of a 

 short-lived passion, without which they would not 

 themselves have existed ; others form temporary asso- 

 ciations among themselves only in cases of extreme ne- 

 cessity, as the wolves of the Alps, when sorely pressed 

 by hunger, unite into packs, and descend on the villages 

 of the plains. Many unite when about to visit distant 

 regions. The sexes of other tribes will separate for a 

 season, although at other times they live in company ; 

 while a few seem impelled to associate occasionally, for 

 the sole purpose of enjoyment, as the inhabitants 

 of a village meet to dance upon the green, after each 

 has performed the labours of the day. To all such 

 associations we apply the term of imperfect societies : 

 those, on the contrary, whose communities are perfect, 

 not only spend their lives together, but unite their la- 

 bours in the production of a dwelling common to all 



Anim. Biog. vol. iii. p 379. 



