INSTINCT AND INTELLIGENCE. 



in different liiding-places cunningly selected ; and in winter, 

 Avhen the scarce season arrives, they never fail to find their 

 stores, even when they are overlaid with snow. It is remarkable 

 that this impulse to hide their food does not cease with the 

 necessity for it, for they take the same care of the residue unoon- 

 iumed upon the return of the ensuing season. 



22. Another rodent, called by naturalists the Lagomys pica, 

 which bears a close resemblance to the common rabbit, and 

 inhabits Siberia, is endowed with an instinct still more remark- 

 able, since it not only collects in autumn the herbage necessary 

 for its sustenance during the long winter of that inhospitable 

 country, but it actually makes hay exactly as do our agricul- 

 turalists. Having cut the richest and most succulent herbs 

 of the field, it spreads them out to dry in the sun ; and this 

 operation finished, it forms them into cooks or ricks, taking care 

 so to place them that they shall be in shelter from the rain and 

 snow. It then sets about excavating a tunnel leading from its 

 own hole to the bottom of these ricks, so that it may have a 

 subterranean communication between its dwelling and its hay- 

 jard ; taking care, moreover, that, the hay being gradually cut 

 from the interior of each stack, the protection provided by the 

 thatching of the external surface will not be disturbed. 



23. Another form of that particular instinct the object of 

 which is the preservation of, the individual, is manifested in the 

 art, with which certain species construct for themselves a suitable 

 dwelling. In executing all the operations, often very complicated, 

 directed to this purpose, their labours are invariably marked by 

 the same general routine; although the operative by whom the 

 work is executed has never before witnessed a similar process, 

 and is aided by neither direction, plan, nor model. 



We have already mentioned the structure of the honeycomb as 

 an example of this, but the insect world abounds with others not 

 less interesting. 



The silkworm constructs for itself, with the delicate threads 

 which it spins, a cocoon, in which it encloses itself, to undergo in 

 ■safety its metamorphosis and to become a butterfly. The rabbit, 

 in like manner, burrows for itself a. dwelling, and the beaver 

 ■constructs those little houses which have rendered it so celebrated. 

 We shall, on another occasion, return to architectural instinct, in 

 noticing the labours executed in common by animals which live 

 in societies. 



24. The hamster (fig. 6) is a little animal of the class of rodents, 

 bearing a close resemblance to the common rat. It inhabits the 

 fields throughout Europe and Asia, and inflicts much injury on 

 the farmer and agriculturalist. This animal constructs for itself 



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