230 



ON THE DISTINCTIVE CHARACTERS, &c/ 



Among- migrating- birds it is not very uncommon for the males alone to dare- 

 the dangers of a distant voyage, and to leave the females behind them : but 

 in the fringilla Coelebs, or chaffinch, we find tliis rule completely inverted ; for 

 the female chaffinches of Sweden quit their males and migrate to Holland 

 towards the winter, and duly return to them in the spring; while many of the 

 males indulge in a profound sleep during the greater period of their absence. 



Most vegetables indulge in a winter-sleep of the same kind ; but lliere are 

 some that sleep still longer. Thus the tuberose root of the ferraria Fcrra- 

 riola, an ornamental herbaceous plant of tiie Cape of Good Hope, remains 

 torpid every alternate year, and sometimes continues in this state for two 

 years together, without putting forth either leaf or fibre. 



Let us close these observations with a momentary glance at the very sin- 

 gular instinctive powers of tlie cancer ruricola, or land-crab. Tiiis is an in- 

 habitant of the tropical regions, and especially of the Bahama islands: it is 

 gregarious, and associates in large bodies that preserve an orderly society, 

 for the most part, in the recesses of inland mountains, though they regularly 

 once a year march down to the seaside in an army of some millions, to de- 

 posite their spawn in the ocean. The time selected for this expedition is 

 usually the month of May, when they sally forth from the stumps of hollow 

 trees, the clefts of rocks, and subterranean burrows, in enormous multitudes. 

 The whole ground, indeed, is covered with this reptile band of adventurers; 

 and no geometrician could direct them to their destined station by a shorter 

 course. They turn neither to the right hand nor to the left, whatever be the 

 obstacles that intervene: and if they meet with a house they will rather 

 attempt to scale the walls than relinquish the unbroken tenor of their way. 

 Occasionally, however, they are obliged to conform to the face of the country; 

 and if it be intersected by rivers, they pursue the stream to its fountain head. 

 In great dearth of rain they are compelled to halt, when they seek the most 

 convenient encampment and remain there till the weather changes. They 

 make a similar halt when the sun shines with intense heat, and wait for the 

 cool of the evening. The journey often takes them up three months before 

 they arrive on the seacoast ; as soon as they accomplish which, they plunge 

 into the water, shake off their spawn upon the sands, which they leave to 

 nature to mature and vivify, and immediately measure back their steps to the 

 mountains. The spawn, thus abandoned, are not left to perish : the soft 

 sands afford them a proper nidus ; the heat of the sun, and the water, give 

 them a birth ; when millions of little crabs are seen crawling to the shore and 

 exploring their way to the interior of the country, and thus quitting their 

 elementary and native habitation, for a new and untried mode of existence. 

 It is the marvellous power of instinct that alone directs them, as it directed 

 the parent hosts from whom they have proceeded ; that marvellous power 

 which is co-extensive with the wide range of organic life, universally recog- 

 nised, though void of sensation; consummately skilful, though destitute of 

 intelligence ; demanding no growth or developement of faculties, but mature 

 and perfect from its first formation. 



The general corollary resulting from these observations is as follows : that 

 instinct, as I have already defined it to be, is the operation of the principle of 

 organized life by the exercise of certain natural powers, directed to the pre- 

 sent or future good of the individual; while reason is the operation of the 

 principle of intellectual life by the exercise of certain acquired powers di- 

 rected to the same object: that it appertains to the whole organized mass, as 

 gravitation does to the whole unorganized ; equally actuating the smallest 

 and the largest portions, the minutest particles and the bulkiest systems ; 

 every organ and every part of every organ, whether solid or fluid, so long as 

 it continues alive : that, like gravitation, it exhibits, under particular circum- 

 stances, different modifications, different powers, and different effects ; but 

 that, like gravitation, too, it is subject to its own division of laws, to which, 

 under definite circumstances, it adheres without the smallest deviation ; and 

 that its sole and uniform aim, whether acting generally or locally, is that of 

 perfection, preservation, or reproduction. 



