335 INSTINCTS OF BEES. 



With numerous Instincts fraught, that lose their force 

 Like shallow streams, divided in their course ; 

 Long weak, and helpless, on the fostering breast, 

 In fond dependence leans the infant guest, 

 Till Reason ripens what young impulse taught, 

 And builds, on sense, the lofty pile of thought ; 

 From earth, sea, air, the quick perceptions rise, 

 And swell the mental fabric to the skies." EVANS. 



" Every manufacturing art," says DR. REID, 

 " was invented by some one man, successively im- 

 proved and perfected by others ; and when thus 

 perfected, known only by those to whom it has 

 been taught: while in the arts of animals no in- 

 dividual can claim the invention. Every animal of 

 the species has equal skill from the beginning, 

 without teaching, without experience, or habit." 



" Both Instinct and Reason," says DR. EVANS, 

 " appear to lose their intensity, in proportion as 

 their rays diverge from their proper focus ; and 

 as they are less frequently aroused to action. A 

 domesticated fowl is furnished with the same ap- 

 paratus as her wild sisters on the waste, for ren- 

 dering her feathers impenetrable to water : yet, 

 living principally under cover, she secretes much 

 less of the oily fluid, destined for that purpose, 

 and makes, when accidentally wet, a most ridicu- 

 lous appearance. The force of instinctive pro- 

 pensities, when directed to one object, and unin- 

 fluenced by reason, is strongly exemplified in the 

 idiot bee-eater of Selborne, mentioned by MR. 



