28o 
TRAVELS IN 
a chirping and whistling noise, the nests of bees; it is called 
by the farmers the honey bird. 
In the conduct of this little animal, there is something that 
approaches very nearly to what philosophers have been pleased 
to deny to the brute part of the creation. Having observed a 
nest of honey, it immediately flies in search of some human 
creature, to whom, by its fluttering, and whistling, and chirp- 
ing, it communicates the discovery. Every one here is too 
well acquainted with the bird to have any doubts as to the 
certainty of the information. It leads the way directly to- 
wards the place, flying from bush to bush, or from one ant- 
hill to another. When close to the nest, it remains still and 
silent. As soon as the person, to whom the discovery was 
made, shall have taken away the honey, the Indicator flies to 
feast on the remains. By the like conduct it is also said to 
indicate, with equal certainty, the dens of lions, tygers, hy- 
aenas, and other beasts of prey and noxious animals. In the 
discovery of a bee's nest, self-interest is concerned ; but in the 
latter instance, its motives must proceed from a different prin- 
ciple. That involuntary and spontaneous agent, which is sup- 
posed to guide and direct the brute creation, and which man, 
unable to investigate the nice shades of cause and effect that, 
no doubt, govern all their actions, has resolved into one general 
moving power called Instinct, is perhaps less a blind uncon- 
scious impulse of nature than a deduction of rational combina- 
tion. It does not appear indeed that there are any solid grounds 
for supposing that the same scale of gradation does not exist in 
the mental as well as in the corporeal part of creation, in both 
