INSTINCT OF INSECTS. ATS - 
instincts of insects with those of other animals; and thus 
to bring together some remarkable instances of the for- 
mer which have not hitherto been laid before you, as 
well as to deduce from some of those already related, in- 
ferences to which it did not fall in with my design before 
to direct your attention. This contrast may be conve- 
niently made under the three heads of—the exquisite- 
ness of their instincts—their number—and their extra- 
ordinary development. 
The instincts of by far the majority of the superior 
animals are of a very simple kind, only directing them 
to select suitable food; to propagate their species; to 
defend themselves and their young from harm; to ex- 
press their sensations by various vocal modulations; and 
to a few other actions which need not be particularized. 
Others of the larger animals, in addition to these simpler 
instinctive propensities, are gifted with more extensive 
powers; storing up food for their winter consumption, 
and building nests or habitations for their young, which 
they carefully feed and tend. 
All these instincts are common to insects, a great pro- 
portion of which are in like manner confined to these. 
But a very considerable number of this class are endowed 
with instincts of an exguzsiteness to which the higher ani- 
mals can lay no claim. What bird or fish, for example, 
catches its prey by means of nets as artfully woven and 
as admirably adapted to their purposes as any that ever 
fisherman or fowler fabricated? Yet such nets are con- 
structed by the race of spiders. What beast of prey 
thinks of digging a pit-fall in the track of the animals 
which serve it for food, and at the bottom of which it 
conceals itself, patiently waiting until some unhappy 
