OF THE INTELLIGENCE AND OF INSTINCT. 169 



met with, in spring time and autumn, vas't herds of antelopes 

 and deer, migrating to great distances.* But it is chiefly in 

 the class Birds that the more remarkable instances of this 

 migratory habit are found. A great number of these animals 

 pass and repass from Europe to Africa so regularly that one 

 may almost name the day of their probable arrival. The 

 swallow comes in spring and departs in autumn. At this 

 season they unite in troops, and may be seen collected on 

 some prominence of the Mediterranean shores, watching, as it 

 were, the favourable moment for the commencement of their 

 journey. They proceed sometimes as far as Senegal. The 

 quail also seeks in the milder regions of Africa and Asia Minor 

 i winter residence ; and many northern birds migrate an- 

 nually towards the South, to pass the rigorous season in 

 milder climates, returning towards the polar regions with 

 early spring. The same instinct exists in fishes ; the salmon, 

 herring, tunny, &c., offer examples sufficiently well known. 



326. No less curious are the instincts which lead insects 

 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 

 as 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 always 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 womanhood. 



327. As many insects never see their young, these won- 

 derful acts arise only from instinct : many place by the side 

 of the larva, food adapted for its nourishment, not such as 

 they themselves use. The necrophore (Fig. 122), Sexton 

 Beetle, often met with in the fields, buries the carcase of a 



* These migrations of the Antelope in Southern Africa appeared to me to 

 b^ chiefly regulated by the condition of the pasture. R. K. 



