XXVIT 
WONDERS OF INSTINCT 
EW men have had a better right to speak 
about instinct than Henri Fabre, whom 
Darwin in The Origin of Species spoke of as “ that 
inimitable observer,” for his genius in scrutiny as 
well as in sympathy brought him into unusually 
close acquaintance with the life of insects where 
instinctive behavior reaches its climax. For 
whatever be our theory of instinct, there is no 
doubt that it is seen in its purest and most perfect 
expression in those creatures which belong to what 
Str Ray Lankester calls the “little-brain” type. 
When we pass from ants, bees, and wasps to the 
big-brained birds we feel at once a change of air; 
inference and learning are at work as well as the 
inborn inspirations of instinct. The appearance of 
a collection of Fabre’s essays under the title The 
Wonders of Instinct’ has brought us again to face 
the old puzzle: What is the nature of instinctive 
behavior? But let us first ask the humbler ques- 
tion: In what particular ways is instinct wonderful, 
where all is wonderful? 
The first marvel that the great naturalist’s dis- 
closures suggest is the extraordinary perfection 
2 Fisher Unwin. tos, 6d. net. 
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