The Swarm Spirit 



have some individual notions, and any show of 

 individuality is so at variance with the common- 

 impulse theory that it seems to illustrate Spen- 

 cer's definition of tragedy, which is, "a theory 

 slain by a fact." In short, bees have our common 

 social instinct highly developed, or overdeveloped, 

 and possibly they have also, like all the higher 

 orders, a stronger or weaker instinct of imitation ; 

 but these are very different matters, more natural 

 and more consistent with the facts than is the 

 alleged swarm instinct. 



A scientific friend, the most observant ornithol- 

 ogist I have ever met, has just offered an interest- 

 ing explanation of the flock or herd phenomena 

 we are here considering. He finds little evidence 

 of a swarm instinct, as distinct from our familiar 

 social instinct; but he has often marveled at the 

 wing drill of birds, and has twice witnessed an 

 alarm or warning of danger spread silently among 

 a herd of scattered beasts ; and he accounts for the 

 observed facts by the supposition that the minds 

 (or what corresponds to the minds) of the lower 

 orders are often moved not from within, but from 

 without that is, not by instinct or by sense 

 impressions, not by what they or others of their 

 kind may see or hear, but by some external and 

 unknown influence. My caribou rushed away, he 

 thinks, and my incoming plover turned as one 



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