INSTINCT OF INSECTS. 



415 



from the statement of Huber, that it was not until the hives 

 had been repeatedly attacked and robbed of nearly their whole 

 stock of honey, that the bees betook themselves to the plan so 

 successfully adopted for the security of their remaining trea- 

 sures; so that reason, taught by experience, seems to have 

 called into action their dormant instinct. 1 



If it be thus probable that reason has some influence upon 

 the actions of insects which must be mainly regarded as in- 

 stinctive, the existence of this faculty is still more evident in 

 numerous traits of their history where instinct is little if at all 

 concerned. An insect is taught by its instincts the most un- 

 erring means to the attainment of certain ends ; but these 

 ends, as I have already had occasion more than once to remark, 

 are limited in number, and such only as are called for by its 

 wants in a state of nature. We cannot reasonably suppose 

 insects to be gifted with instincts adapted for occasions that 

 are never likely to happen. If, therefore, we find them, in 

 these extraordinary and improbable emergencies, still availing 

 themselves of the means apparently best calculated for en- 

 suring their object; and if in addition they seem in some 

 cases to gain knowledge by experience ; if they can commu- 

 nicate information to each other; and if they are endowed 

 with memory, — it appears impossible to deny that they are 

 possessed of reason. I shall now produce facts in proof of 

 each of these positions ; not by any means all that might be 

 adduced, but a few of the most striking that occur to me. 



First, then, insects often, in cases not likely to be provided 

 for by instinct, adopt means evidently designed for effecting 

 their object. 



A certain degree of warmth is necessary to hatch a hen's 

 eggs, and we give her little credit for reason in sitting upon 

 them for this purpose. But if any one had ever seen a hen 

 make her nest in a heap of fermenting dung, among the bark 

 of a hot-bed, or in the vicinity of a baker's oven, where, the 

 heat being as well adapted as the stoves of the Egyptians to 

 bring her chickens into life, she left off the habit of her race, 



i Huber, ii. 289. 



