256 INSTINCT. 



a sweet day, and in appearance exactly suited to my wishes, 

 yet not a marten was to be seen, and so I was forced, reluc- 

 tantly, to give up the pursuit. 



I have only to add, that were the bushes, which cover some 

 acres, and are not my own property, to be grubbed and care- 

 fully examined, probably those late broods, and perhaps the 

 whole aggregate body of the house-martens of this district, 

 might be found there in different secret dormitories ; and that, 

 so far from withdrawing into warmer climes, it would appear 

 that they never depart three hundred yards from the village. 



LETTER C. 



TO THE HON. DA1NES BARRINGTON. 



THEY who write on natural history, cannot too frequently 

 advert to instinct, that wonderful limited faculty, which, in 

 some instances, raises the brute creation, as it were, above 

 reason, and in others, leaves them so far below it. Philosophers 

 have defined instinct to be that secret influence by which 

 every species is impelled naturally to pursue, at all times, the 

 fiame way, or track, without any teaching or example ; whereas 

 reason, without instruction, would often vary, and do that by 

 many methods which instinct effects by one 'alone. Now, this 

 maxim must be taken in a qualified sense, for there are instances 

 in which instinct does vary and conform to the circumstances 

 of place and convenience. 



It has been remarked, that every species of bird has a mode 

 of nidification peculiar to itself, so that a schoolboy would at 

 once pronounce on the sort of nest before him. This is the 

 case among fields, and woods, and wilds ; but in the villages 

 round London, where mosses, and gossamer and cotton from 

 vegetables, are hardly to be found, the nest of the chaffinch 

 has not that elegant finished appearance, nor is it so beautifully 

 studded with lichens, as in a more rural district ; and the wren 

 is obliged to construct its house with straws and dry grasses, 

 which do not give it that rotundity and compactness so remark- 

 able in the edifices of that little architect. Again, the regular 

 nest of the house-marten is hemispheric ; but where a rafter, 

 or a joist, or a cornice, may happen to stand in the way, the 

 nest is so contrived as to conform to the obstruction, and 

 becomes flat, or oval, or compressed. 



In the following instances, instinct is perfectly uniform 

 and consistent. There are three creatures, the squirrel, the 



