382 



INSTINCT OF INSECTS. 



victim is precipitated down the sides of its cavern ? Yet this 

 is done by the ant-lion and another insect. Or, to omit the 

 endless instances furnished by wasps, ants, the Termites, &c., 

 what animals can be adduced which, like the hive-bee, asso- 

 ciating in societies, build regular cities composed of cells 

 formed with geometrical precision, divided into dwellings 

 adapted in capacity to different orders of the society, and 

 storehouses for containing a supply of provision ? Even the 

 erections of the beaver, and the pensile dwelling of the tailor- 

 bird, must be referred to a less elaborate instinct than that 

 which guides the procedures of these little insects, the 

 complexness and yet perfection of whose operations, when 

 contrasted with the insignificance of the architect, have at 

 all times caused the reflecting observer to be lost in astonish- 

 ment. 



It is, however, in the deviations of the instincts of insects, 

 and their accommodation to circumstances, that the exquisite- 

 ness of these faculties is most decidedly manifested. The 

 instincts of the larger animals seem capable of but slight mo- 

 dification. They are either exercised in their full extent or 

 not at all. A bird when its nest is pulled out of a bush, 

 though it should be laid uninjured close by, never attempts 

 to replace it in its situation ; it contents itself with building 

 another. But insects in similar contingencies often exhibit 

 the most ingenious resources, their instincts surprisingly ac- 

 commodating themselves to the new circumstances in which 

 they are placed, in a manner more wonderful and incompre- 

 hensible than the existence of the faculties themselves. Take 

 a honey-comb, for instance. If every comb that bees fabri- 

 cate were alivays made "precisely alike — with the same general 

 form, placed in the same position, the cells all exactly similar, 

 or where varying with the variations always alike — this 

 structure would perhaps in reality be not more astonishing 

 than many of a much simpler conformation. But when we 

 know that in nine instances out of ten the combs in a bee- 

 hive are thus similar in their properties, and yet that the 

 tenth one shall be found of a form altogether peculiar ; placed 

 in a different position; with cells of a different shape — and 

 all these variations evidently adapted to some new circum- 



