INSTINCT. 
of the species or in the conduct of different 
communities, as we cannot doubt must occur 
if the inhabitants of every hive were guided, on 
‘such unusual occasions, by processes of reason- 
ing, by observation of the laws of nature, by 
experience, and anticipation of the effects of 
their actions. If such mental processes were 
their guide, we should certainly observe a diffe- 
rence in the conduct of experienced workers, 
and of those just emerged from their pupe ; 
and we should observe some variety in the ex- 
 pedients adopted in different hives for meeting 
- such accidents or difficulties. 2. While the 
“Varying operations of these animals for one 
§ vu: end, the preservation of their own 
lives and the perpetuation of their species, are 
‘planned and combined in such a manner as to 
“Indicate consummate intelligence as to what is 
essential for that purpose, all these indications 
of instinct are limited to that object, and we 
“see no evidence of the exercise of their senses 
“suggesting to them any other trains of thought, 
or exciting them to the prosecution of other 
objects, such as a number of human intellects 
capable of planning and executing such works 
would certainly, sooner or later, attempt to 
accomplish. The degree of uniformity seen in 
their operations, and the limitation of the ob- 
jects on which their faculties are exerted, are 
therefore our reason for thinking (although we 
do not wish to express ourselves with absolute 
confidence on the subject) that the mental pro- 
cesses concerned, even in those the most elabo- 
ae and artificial of the works of animals, be- 
long to the same class as those notions of man 
“aa are prompted by his instinctive propen- 
sities as distinguished from his reason. 
_ At the same time it ought to be stated, that 
‘erga are many acts of individual animals, or 
: 
of particular communities, in which we must 
admit that, although instinct is concerned, it 
‘must be guided by mental operations, in which 
“short processes of reasoning, involving certain 
general ideas, must have been concerned. 
Several instances, quoted by Mr. Spence, seem 
hardly to admit of any other interpretation, 
e.g. the following from Huber. The bees of 
‘some of his neighbours protected themselves 
‘against the attacks of the death’s-head moth, 
Sphinx atropos,) by so closing the entrance of 
‘the hive with walls, arcades, &c. built of a 
ixture of wax and propolis, that these ma- 
uders could no longer intrude themselves. 
ure instinct would have taught “ the bees 
fortify themselves on the first attack ; if the 
ccupants of a hive had been taken unawares 
by these gigantic aggressors one night, on the 
“second at least the entrance should have been 
barricadoed. But it appears clear, from the 
“statement of Huber, that it was not until the 
ives had been repeatedly attacked, and robbed 
of nearly their whole stock of honey, that the 
dees betook themselves to the plan so success- 
fully adopted for the security of their remaining 
treasures; so that reason, taught by experience, 
seems to have called into action their dormant 
instinct.” 
_ Again, “a German artist, a man of strict vera- 
city, states that in his journey through Italy he 
. 
21 
was an eye-witness to the following occurrence. 
He observed a species of Scarabeus busily en- 
gaged in making, for the reception of its egg, a 
pellet of dung, which when finished it rolled to 
the summit of a small hillock, and repeatedly 
suffered to tumble down its side, apparently 
for the sake of consolidating it by the earth 
which each time adhered to it. During this 
process the pellet unluckily fell into an adjoin- 
ing hole, out of which all the efforts of the 
beetle to extricate it were in vain. After several 
ineffectual trials, the insect repaired to an ad- 
joining heap of dung, and soon returned with 
three of his companions. All four now applied 
their united strength to the pellet, and at length 
succeeded in pushing it out; which being 
done, the three assistant beetles left the spot 
and returned to their own quarters.””* 
A number of other instances have been col- 
lected by Mr. Duncan. 
“ Professor Fischer has published an account 
of a hen, which hen made use of the artificial 
heat of a hotbed to hatch her eggs.” 
“A fact is stated by Reaumur of some ants, 
which, finding they could derive heat from a 
bee-hive, contrived to avail themselves of it by 
placing their larve between the hive and an 
exterior covering.” 
“ Dr. Darwin observed a wasp with a large 
fly nearly as big as itself; finding it too heavy, 
it cut off the head and the abdomen, and then 
carried off the remainder, with the wings at- 
tached to it, into the air: but again finding the 
breeze act on the wings, and impede its pro- 
gress, it descended, and deliberately cut off the 
wings. Instinct might have taught it to cut off 
the wings of all insects previous to flying away 
with them ; but here it attempted to fly with 
the wings on, was impeded by a certain cause, 
discovered what that cause was, and alighted 
to remove it. Is not this a comparison of 
ideas, and deducing consequences from. pre- 
mises ?” 
“ M. de la Loubitre, in his relation of Siam, 
Says, that in a part of that kingdom which 
lies open to great inundations, all the ants make 
their settlements on trees; no ants’ nests are to 
be seen any where else. Whereas in our 
country the ground is their only habitation.” 
“ We sometimes kill a cockroach,” says 
Ligon in his history of Barbadoes, quoted by 
Spence, “and throw him on the ground, and 
mark what the ants will do with him; his body 
is bigger than a hundred of them, and yet 
they will find the means to lay hold of him 
and lift him up; and having him above 
ground, away they carry him; and some go 
by as ready assistants if any be weary, and 
some are officers that lead and shew the way ; 
and if the van-couriers perceive that the body 
of the cockroach lies across, and will not pass 
through the hole or arch through which they 
mean to carry him, order is given, and the body 
turned endways, and this is done a foot before 
they come to the hole, and without stop or 
stay.” + 
* Introd. to Entomology, vol. ii. p.525. 
t History of Barbadoes, p. 63. 
