324 INSTINCTS OF BEES. 



dition, and avail themselves of that strength, 

 which sometimes accrues to them, in consequence 

 of a large accession to their numbers. To relieve 

 themselves from labour, they enslave, by a coup 

 de main, a feeble colony of ants of another species, 

 and transporting it to their own domicile, impose 

 upon the captives the task of collecting provi- 

 sion, rearing the young, repairing the formicary, 

 &c. &c. The Amazons become a complete ari- 

 stocracy, and like ladies and gentlemen, have ser- 

 vants to wait upon them. 



I shall not attempt to determine the point where 

 intellect begins to dawn, nor to assign the boun- 

 dary where instinct assumes the characteristics of 

 reason. For it is no where more difficult to dis- 

 criminate between the regular operation of im- 

 planted motives, and the result of acquired know- 

 ledge and habits, than in studying the phaenomena 

 presented by the bee. For the present therefore 

 I must be allowed to regard the provinces of rea- 

 son and instinct as undefinable ; indeed it seems 

 highly probable that our limited faculties may never 

 enable us to acquire a knowledge of them. Still 

 the facts which I have related, and those which I 

 shall proceed to detail, afford such apparently strong 

 evidences of a reasoning faculty, that without in- 

 troducing that faculty as their source, I shall be 

 at a loss to explain the phaenomena. DR. DARWIN 

 in his Zoonomia, relates an anecdote of apparent ra- 



