232 OCTOBER 



them, and it was curious to see how shrewdly a red 

 admiral would sheer off at the approach of a bee of 

 less than one-tenth of his own bulk. Sometimes 

 the butterfly was too much engaged sucking up 

 sweets to pay attention at once; a quick run and 

 an angry buzz from the bee awoke him to a sense of 

 the situation, and he cleared off directly. 



Now how do butterflies learn to dread a bee 1 

 How do they know that bees are armed 1 It can 

 hardly be by experience, for no butterfly could sur- 

 vive the stab of a bee's sting. It is part of the 

 mystery enveloping the intelligence of animals not 

 personally educated by their parents. One can 

 understand, or at least imagine, how birds and 

 mammals, sedulous in attention to their offspring, 

 can communicate to them caution, the fruit of the 

 experience of countless generations ; but the phases 

 of insect life the egg abandoned by the parent 

 the stages of larva, pupa, and imago seem specially 

 calculated to interfere with hereditary knowledge, 

 and to prohibit the communication of instruction. 

 Instinct is an obscure, as well as a much misused 

 term ; this avoidance of bees by butterflies seems to 

 be an instance of pure instinct, unless, indeed, the 

 countenance of a bee bears such a malevolent ex- 



