322 
TRAVELS IN 
In the condud of this little animal, there is fomething that 
approaches to what philofophers have been pleafed to deny to 
the brute part of the creation. Having obferved a neft of honey, 
it immediately flies in fcarch of fome human creature, to whom, 
by its fluttering, and whiftling, and chirping, it communicates 
the difcovery. 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 towards the place, flying from bufli to 
bufh, or from one ant-hill to another. When clofe to the nefl:, 
it remains ftill and filent. As foon as the perfon, to whom the 
difcovery was made, fliall have taken away the honey, the In- 
dicator flies to feaft on the remains. By the like condu£t it is 
alfo faid to indicate, with equal certainty, the dens of lions, 
tygers, hysenas, and other beafl:s of prey and noxious animals. 
In the difcovery of a bee's nefl:, felf-interefl: is concerned ; but 
in the latter infl:ance, its motives mufl: proceed from a different 
principle. That involuntary and fpontaneous agent, which is 
fuppofed to guide and dire£t the brute creation, and which 
man, unable to invefl:igatc the nice fhades of caufe and effect 
that no doubt govern all their actions, has refolved into one 
general moving power called Infl:in£t, is perhaps lefs a blind 
impulfe of nature than a ray of reafon. The chain of rational 
faculties from man, the topmofl: link, to the meanefl; reptile, 
may, perhaps, with equal propriety, be fuppofed to exifl:, as that 
which more apparently is obferved to connedl their exterior 
forms. If it be infl:indl that in Europe caufes the fhynefs of 
birds at the approach of man, the fame infliind: infl:ruds them 
to be fo bold in India and China, where they are not molefl:ed, 
as 
