CDRtOUS IKSTINCT. 129 



body. As soon as these eggs arc hatched, the 

 young maggots revel in the feast the body of 

 their victim provides, while the supply of food 

 in every instance is regulated with an incon- 

 ceivable precision, so as just to last these young 

 ichneumons till they have grown to a size to 

 do without it. Then the grub or caterpillar on 

 which they have existed dies, or, perhaps, just 

 retains sufficient vital power to turn into a 

 chrysalis ; which at last does not give birth to 

 a moth, butterfly, or any other fly proper to it, 

 but to several full-grown ichneumons, whose 

 larvae have become pupae within this case. 

 The author, not many years ago, had a chrysalis 

 which disclosed, at the proper time, no less than 

 seventeen ichneumons, instead cf a large moth 

 which he had expected to see emerge from it. 

 Instinct, we are told upon high authority, is a 

 propensity prior to experience, and independent 

 of instruction. It is verified in those strange 

 operations. The little maggot which springs 

 from the egg of the ichneumon goes on eat- 

 ing up its prey, devouring every part of it 

 except the vital organs, which it never touches, 

 as if it knew instinctively that the death of its 

 victim would involve its own entire destruction 

 by famine. Some ichneumons only glue their 



