INSTINCTS. 
173 
Unless we will rather suppose, that she remembers hei 
own escape from the egg; had attentively observed the 
conformation of the nest in which she was nurtured; and 
had treasured up her remarks for future imitation: which 
is not only extremely improbable, (for who, that sees a 
brood of callow birds in their nest, can believe that they 
are taking a plan of their habitation?) but leaves unac¬ 
counted for, one principal part of the difficulty, “ tfie pre¬ 
paration of the nest before the laying of the egg.” This 
she could not gain from observation in her infancy. 
It is remarkable also, that the hen sits upon eggs which 
she has laid without any communication with the male, 
and which are therefore necessarily unfruitful; that secret 
she is not let into. Yet, if incubation had been a sub¬ 
ject of instruction or of tradition, it should seem that this 
distinction would have formed part of the lesson; whereas 
the instinct of nature is calculated for a state of nature; 
the exception here alluded to taking place chiefly, if not 
solely, amongst domesticated fowls, in which nature is 
forced out of her course. 
There is another case of oviparous economy, which is 
still less likely to be the effect of education than it is even 
in birds, namely that of moths and butterflies, which de¬ 
posit their eggs in the precise substance, that of a cabbage 
for example, from which, not the butterfly herself, but the 
caterpillar which is to issue from her egg, draws its ap¬ 
propriate food. The butterfly cannot taste the cabbage. 
Cabbage is no food for her; yet in the cabbage, not by 
chance, but studiously and electively, she lays her eggs. 
There are, amongst many other kinds, the willow cater¬ 
pillar, and the cabbage caterpillar: but we never And upon 
a willow the caterpillar which eats the cabbage; nor the con¬ 
verse. This choice, as appears to me, cannot in the butter¬ 
fly proceed from instruction. She had no teacher in her 
caterpillar state. She never knew her parent. I do not 
see, therefore, h6w knowledge, acquired by experience, if 
it ever were such, could be transmitted from one genera¬ 
tion to another. There is no opportunity either for instruc¬ 
tion or imitation. The parent race is gone, before the new 
brood is hatched. And if it be original reasoning in the 
butterfly, it is profound reasoning indeed. She must re¬ 
member her caterpillar state, its tastes and habits; of which 
memory she shows no signs whatever. She must conclude 
from analogy, for here her recollection cannot serve her, 
that the little round body which drops from her abdomen, 
will at a future period produce a living creature, not like 
