56 INSECT ARCHITECTURE, 



select the brilliant petals of the poppy from their co- 

 lour, or from any other quality they may possess, 

 of softness or of warmth, for instance. Reaumur 

 thinks that the largeness, united with the flexibility 

 of the poppy-leaves, determines her choice. Yet it 

 is not improbable that her eye may be gratified 

 by the appearance of her nest ; — that she may pos- 

 sess a feeling of the beautiful in colour, and may 

 look with complacency upon the delicate hang- 

 ings of the apartment which she destines for her 

 offspring. Why should not an insect be supposed 

 to have a glimmering of the value of ornament ? 

 How can we pronounce, from our limited notion 

 of the mode in which the inferior animals think 

 and act, that their gratifications are wholly bounded 

 by the positive utility of the objects which sur- 

 round them? Wliy does a dog howl at the sound 

 of a bugle, but because it offends his organs of hear- 

 ing.? — and why, therefore, may not a bee feel glad- 

 ness in the brilliant hues of her scarlet drapery, be- 

 cause they are grateful to her organs of sight ? AH 

 these little creatures work, i)robably, with more neat- 

 ness and finish than is absolutely essential for com- 

 fort; and this circumstance alone would imply that 

 they have something of taste to exliibit, which pro- 

 duces to them a pleasurable emotion. 



The tapestry-bee is, however, content mth orna- 

 menting the interior only of the nest which she forms 

 for her progeny. She does not misplace her embel- 

 lishments with the error of some human artists. She 

 desires security as well as elegance; and, therefore, 

 she leaves no external traces of her operations. Her's 

 is not a mansion rich with columns and friezes with- 

 out, but cold and unfurnished within, like the deso- 

 late palaces of Venice. She covers her tapestry 

 quite round with the common earth; and leaves her 

 eggs enclosed in their poppy-case with a certainty 



