INSTINCT OF INSECTS. 551 
exceeding (if we omit those common to almost all animated beings) eight 
or ten distinct instincts. Thus in the common duck, one instinct leads it 
at its birth from the egg to rush to the water; another to seek its proper 
food ; a third to pair with its mate; a fourth to form a nest ; a fifth to sit 
upon its eggs till hatched ; a sixth to assist the young ducklings in extri- 
cating themselves from the shell ; and a seventh to defend them when in 
danger until able to provide for themselves : and it would not be easy, as 
far as my knowledge extends, to add many more distinct instinctive actions 
to the enumeration, or to adduce many species of the superior classes of 
animals endowed with a greater number. 
But how vastly more manifold are the instincts of the majority of insects ! 
It is not necessary to insist upon those differences which take place in the 
same insect in its different states, leading it to select one kind of food in 
the larva and another in the perfect state—to defend itself in one mode in 
the former, and in another in the latter, &c.; because, however remarkable 
these variations, they may be referred with great plausibility to those striking 
changes in the organic structure of the animal which occur at the two periods 
of its existence. It is to the number of instincts observable in the satne 
individual of many insects in their perfect state that I now confine myself ; 
and asthe most striking example of the whole I shall select the hive-bee, 
—begging you to bear in mind that I do not mean to include those exhibited 
by the cueen, the drones, or even those of the workers termed by Huber 
ciriéres (wax makers) ; but only to enumerate those presented by that por- 
tion of the workers termed by Huber nouwrrices or petites abeilles Gs 
upon whon, as you have been before told, with the exception of making 
wax, layirg the foundation of the cells, and collecting honey for being 
stored, the principal labours of the hive devolve. It will be these indi- 
viduals aloie that I shall understand by the term dees, under the present 
head ; and ‘hough the other inhabitants of the hive may occasionally concur 
in some of their actions and labours, yet it is obyious that so many as are 
those in whith ¢hey distinctly take part, so many instincts must we regard 
them as endaved with. 
To begin en, with the formation of the colony. By one instinct bees 
are directed t) send out scouts previously to their swarming, in search of 
a suitable abdle ; and by another to rush out of the hive after the queen 
that leads forh the swarm, and follow wherever she bends her course. 
Having taken jossession of their new abode, whether of their own selection 
or prepared foithem by the hand of man, a third instinct teaches them to 
cleanse it from ll impurities; a fourth to collect propolis, and with it to 
stop up every a except the entrance; a fifth to ventilate the hive for 
preserving the jurity of the air; and a sixth to keep a constant guard at 
the door.? 
In constructiry the houses and streets of their new city, or the cells and 
combs, there arqprobably several distinct instincts exercised ; but, not to 
leave room for oljection, I shall regard them as the result of one only : yet 
the operations of/polishing the interior of the cells, and soldering their an- 
gles and orifices with propolis, which are sometimes not undertaken for 
weeks after the cills are built®; and the obscure, but still more curious 
one, of varnishing them with the yellow tinge observable in old combs,— 
seem clearly refersble to at least two distinct instincts. The varnishing. 
1 Huber, ii. 102, | 2 Tbid. i. 186. ii, 412.” 5 Ibid. ii, 264, 
NN 4 
