160 ZOOLOGY. 



<>f tin-,. ; , nii, mis pass and ivpass from Europe to Africa so 

 regularly tliat one may almost name the day of t heir probable 

 arrival. The swallow coim-s in spring and departs in autumn. 

 At this sra.-on they unit.- in troops, and may be seen col- 

 lected on some prominence of the Mediterranean shores, 

 watching, as it were, the favourable moment for the com- 

 mencement of their journey. They proceed sometim. - 

 as Senegal. The quail also seeks in the milder regions of 

 Africa and Asia Minor a \vinterresidence; and many northern 

 birds migrate annually towards the South, to pass the rigo- 

 rous season in milder climates, returning towards the polar 

 regions with early spring. The same instinct exists in fishes; 

 the salmon, herring, tunny, <fec., offer examples sufficiently 

 well known. 



326. No less curious are the instincts which lead insect > 

 and other animals to provide for the preservation of the 

 young. The tedious process of incubation or hatching the 

 eggs ; the care bestowed by the parent on the young so soon 

 .is they appear; the selection of the locale; the construction 

 of the nest: the kind of education which some give their 

 young; the forethought which provides for the young, food in 

 abundance the moment they require it, added to the love of 

 offspring so strongly shown in many animals, must alwavs 

 excite in every reflecting mind the utmost admiration of the 

 boundless power and knowledge and wisdom of the great 

 Author of nature. These instincts 

 extend to woman herself, and develop 

 in her at once all the fondness of a 

 parent and the sagacity of woman- 

 hood. 



327. As many in>. 

 their young, these wonderful a.-t> 

 arise only from instinct : many place 

 by the side of the larva, food 

 adapted for its nourishment, not such 

 as they them-elve> use. The liecro- 

 phore (Fig. 104), often met with in 

 iv. Norr..j.li..re. the fields, buries the carcase of a 

 mole or some other animal near the 

 place where it deposits its eggs, that the young when they 

 appear may have an abundant supply of provisions. They 

 live on putrid meat like the parent : but the compiles, insects 



* The Sexton-beetle. 





