354 OBJECTIONS TO THE THEORY [Chap. VIIL 



section; the bees, of course, no more knowing that they 

 swei^t their spheres at one particular distance from each 

 other, than they know what are the several angles of the 

 hexagonal prisms and of the basal rhombic plates; the 

 motive power of the process of natural selection having 

 been the construction of cells of due strength and of 

 the proper size and shape for the larvae, this being 

 effected with the greatest possible economy of labour 

 and wax; that individual swarm which thus made the 

 best cells with least labour, and least waste of honey 

 in the secretion of wax, having succeeded best, and 

 having transmitted their newly-acquired economical 

 instincts to new swarms, which in their turn will have 

 had the best chance oi succeeding in the struggle for 

 existence. 



Oljedions to the Theory of Natural Selection- as applied 

 to Instincts: Neuter and Sterile Insects. 



It has been objected to the foregoing view of. the ori- 

 gin of instincts that " the variations of structure and of 

 instinct must have been simultaneous and accurately 

 adjusted to each other, as a modification in the one 

 without an immediate corresponding change in the 

 other would have been fatal." The force of this objec- 

 tion rests entirely on the assumption that the changes in 

 the instincts and structure are abrupt. To take as an 

 illustration the case of the larger titmouse (Parus 

 major) alluded to in a previous chapter; this bird often 

 holds the seeds of the yew between its feet on a branch, 

 and hammers with its beak till it gets at the kernel. 

 Now what special difficulty would there be in natural 

 selection preserving all the slight individual variations 

 in the shape of the beak, which were better and better 



