60 LIFE OF 



it perfectly by the smell ; but the blood-horse shows no such 

 sagacity he is a perfect idiot in that respect. 



" If a botanist who had only seen that variety of the Brassica 

 oleracea which we call a cauliflower, described it, how little 

 would his account agree with the observations others would 

 have made who had seen the Scotch kale and ox-cabbage ! Bees 

 have been stated to fortify their hives against the ingress of 

 enemies in those countries where such enemies are found ; while 

 we see no indication of such precautions here, where, through 

 many successive generations, no such enemies have presented 

 themselves." 



" We find abundant facts to prove that not only animals, but 

 plants also, adapt their habits to incidental external circum- 

 stances. The crab, the pear, and the plum are produced in a 

 state of nature only upon trees covered with sharp thorns ; and 

 wheat, in anything approaching its natural state, is always 

 strongly bearded. 



" The wild duck sagaciously conceals its nest, and covers its 

 eggs when it leaves them ; but the same bird domesticated often 

 drops them at random ; and if it makes a nest, it is in so open 

 a place, that the crows destroy them. The tame goose 

 cannot be trusted with its own eggs ; for it will sit so long, when 

 it lays one, that it will spoil those previously laid." 



An anecdote is given in the first volume of Mr. Jesse's Glean- 

 ings in Natural History, on the authority of Mr. Knight, of a 

 fly-catcher, which he used often to mention as one of many 

 instances that had come under his observation, of the exercise 

 of a degree of intelligence, apparently surpassing the limits of 

 the instinct given to animals to guide and direct their proceed- 

 ings in the ordinary mode of existence appointed to them, and 

 to indicate a power of adapting the habits of an individual, on 

 whom cultivation had not exerted any influence, to exigencies 

 which could rarely, if ever, occur. 



This bird, for several successive years, built its nest in a stove 



