INSTINCT OF INSECTS. 551 



exceeding (if we omit those common to almost all animated beings) eight 

 or ten distinct instincts. Thus in the common 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 extri- 

 cating themselves from the shell ; and a seventh to defend them when in 

 clanger until 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 adduce many species of the superior classes of 

 animals endowed with a greater number. 



But how vastly more manifold are the instincts of the majority of insects ! 

 It is not necessary to insist upon those differences which take place in the 

 same insect in its different states, leading it to select one kind of food in 

 the larva and another in the perfect state to defend itself in one mode in 

 the former, and in another in the latter, &c. ; because, however remarkable 

 these variations, they may be referred with great plausibility to those striking 

 changes in the organic structure of the animal which occur at the two periods 

 of its existence. It is to the number of instincts observable in the same 

 individual of many insects in their perfect state that I now confine myself; 

 and as the most striking example of the whole I shall select the hive-bee, 

 begging you to bear in mind that I do not mean to include those exhibited 

 by the queen, the drones, or even those of the workers termed by Huber 

 cirieres (wax makers) ; but only to enumerate those presented by that por- 

 tion of the workers termed by Huber nourrices or petites abeilles (nurses), 

 upon whom, as you have been before told, with the exception ot making 

 wax, laying the foundation of the cells, and collecting honey for being 

 stored, the principal labours of the hive devolve. It will be these indi- 

 viduals alone that I shall understand by the term bees, under the present 

 head ; and though the other inhabitants of the hive may occasionally concur 

 in some of their actions and labours, yet it is obvious that so many as are 

 those in which they distinctly take part, so many instincts must we regard 

 them as endowed with. 



To begin, then, with the formation of the colony. By one instinct bees 

 are directed to send out scouts previously to their swarming, in search of 

 a suitable abode ; and by another to rush out of the hive after the queen 

 that leads forth the swarm, and follow wherever she bends her course. 

 Having taken possession of their new abode, whether of their own selection 

 or prepared for them by the hand of man, a third instinct teaches them to 

 cleanse it from all impurities 1 ; a fourth to collect propolis, and with it to 

 stop up every crevice except the entrance ; a fifth to ventilate the hive for 

 preserving the purity of the air ; and a sixth to keep a constant guard at 

 the door. 2 



In constructing the houses and streets of their new city, or the cells and 

 combs, there are probably several distinct instincts exercised ; but, not to 

 leave room for objection, I shall regard them as the result of one only : yet 

 the operations of polishing the interior of the cells, and soldering their an- 

 gles and orifices with propolis, which are sometimes not undertaken for 

 weeks after the cells are built 3 ; and the obscure, but still more curious 

 one, of varnishing them with the yellow tinge observable in old combs, 

 seem clearly referable to at least two distinct instincts. The varnishing 



i Huber, ii. 102. Ibid. i. 186. ii. 412. 5 Ibid. ii. 264. 



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