HONEYCOMB ANT-LION. 



15. As an example of an act manifestly instinctive, a fact familiar 

 to all who have visited a poultry-yard may be mentioned. When 

 a mixed brood of chickens and ducklings hatched by a hen 

 approach for the first time a pond of water, the ducklings preci- 

 pitate themselves into the liquid, in spite of the efforts of their 

 adopted mother to prevent them, and contrary to the example of 

 the chickens, with whom they have come into life and from whom 

 they have never been separated. The ducklings who do this may 

 have never before seen water or any individuals of their own 

 species, yet they use their webbed feet as propellers with as much 

 skill as the oldest and most experienced of their race. 



16. An example of a much more complicated process, which is 

 manifestly instinctive, is presented by the labours of the bee 

 already mentioned. The comb is a highly geometrical structure, 

 which, if executed under the direction of intelligence, would 

 require not only faculties of a high order, but profound calculation 

 and much experience. Considered in relation to the purposes it 

 is destined to fulfil, it would require the greatest foresight and a 

 thorough knowledge of the whole course 'of life and organic 

 functions of the species to which the constructors belong. Sup- 

 posing them to be endowed with the necessary intelligence, the 

 combs could not be constructed without many preliminary trials 

 and partial failures, the necessary perfection being only attainable 

 by slow degrees and by means of a series of experiments. 

 Nothing of the kind however takes place, the complicated struc- 

 ture being produced at once with the greatest facility and in the 

 highest perfection. There are, therefore, here none of the charac- 

 ters of a work directed by intelligence, but all the marks of one 

 prompted by instinct. 



17. Although the acts by which animals obtain and select their 

 proper food are undoubtedly instinctive, they are, nevertheless, 

 often attended with circumstances which it would be difficult to 

 explain without the intervention of some degree of intelligence. 



Fig. 2. Larva of 

 the Aiit-Lion. 



Fig. 1. The Ant-Lion. 



There is a little insect of the order Neuroptcra and the family 



119 



