[682]Reaum.f.3.l.[683]Ibid.f.6.t t. f.9.[684]PlateVIII.Fig.19. The figure given in this plate does not show the drums clearly; but the principal object of it was to exhibit the bundles of muscles, which are of a different form from those in Reaumur's figures; they are represented atC´´. C´´.in connection with the drums. The mirror is the part directly beneath these bundles.[685]Hist. Ins.81.[686]Hist. abreg.i. 168.[687]IlligerMag.iv. 195.[688]Nat. Hist.ii. 279.[689]Geoffr. i. 167. De Geer, iv. 35.[690]I call by this name all thoseLampyridæwhose head is not at all, or but little, concealed by the shield of the prothorax, and both sexes of which are winged.[691]Vol.I.317.[692]Pietro Martire,The Decades of the New World, quoted inMadoc, p. 543.[693]P. Martire,ubi supr.[694]Walton'sPresent State of the Spanish Colonies, i. 128.[695]Iahrgang, i. 141.[696]112.[697]Walton'sHispaniola, i. 39.[698]Tour on the Continent, 2d Edit. iii. 85.[699]Ins. Sur.49.—The above account of the luminous properties ofFulgora laternariais given, because negative evidence ought not hastily to be allowed to set aside facts positively asserted by an author whose veracity is unimpeached; but it is necessary to state, that not only have several of the inhabitants of Cayenne, according to the FrenchDictionnaire d'Histoire Naturelle, denied that this insect shines, in which denial they are joined by M. Richard, who reared the species (Encyclopédie, art.Fulgora); but the learned and accurate Count Hoffmansegg informs us, that his insect collector Sieber, a practised entomologist of thirty years standing, and who, when in the Brazils for some years, took many specimens, affirms that he never saw a single one in the least luminous.Der Gesellschaft Naturf. Fr. zu Berlin Mag.i. 153.[700]De Geer, iv. 63.—These insects, which were chieflyBrachypteraL.,Aphodii, spiders, caterpillars, but particularly the larvæ ofTelephorus fuscus, fell in such abundance that they might have been taken from the snow by handfuls.—Other showers of insects which have been recorded, as that in Hungary, 20th November 1672 (Ephem. Nat. Curios.1673. 80.), and one mentioned in the newspapers of July 2d, 1810, to have fallen in France the January preceding, accompanied by a shower of red snow, may evidently be explained in the same manner.[701]p. 407.[702]Linn. Trans.iv. 261.[703]Latr.Hist. Nat.x. 262.[704]Rev. Dr. Sutton of Norwich.[705]Travels, 2d Ed. 334.[706]Phil. Trans.1729. 204.[707]Phil. Trans.1810, p. 281.—Mr. Macartney's statement on this point is not very clear. He probably means that the insect will not shine in a dark place in theday time, unless previously exposed to the solar light: for it is often seen to shine at night when it could have had norecentexposure to the sun.[708]Annal. di Chimica, xiii. 1797.Phil. Mag.ii. 80.[709]"And for night-tapers crop their waxen thighs,And light them at the fiery glow-worms' eyes."[710]Some experiments made by my friend the Rev. R. Sheppard on the glow-worm are worthy of being recorded.—One of the receptacles being extracted with a penknife, continued luminous; but on being immersed in camphorated spirit of wine, became immediately extinct. The animal, with one of its receptacles uninjured, being plunged into the same spirit, became apparently lifeless in less than a minute; but the receptacle continued luminous for five minutes, the light gradually disappearing.—Having extracted the luminous matter from the receptacles, in two days they were healed, and filled with luminous matter as before. He found this matter to lose its luminous property, and become dry and glossy like gum, in about two minutes; but it recovered it again on being moistened with saliva, and again lost it when dried. When the matter was extracted from two or three glow-worms, and covered with liquid gum-arabic, it continued luminous for upwards of a quarter of an hour.[711]Phil. Trans.1810, p. 287.[712]Ibid.1801, p. 483.[713]See above, p.225.[714]Müller inIllig. Mag.iv. 178.[715]iv. 49.[716]Phil. Trans.1799. 157.[717]Vol.I.452.[718]Brahm,Ins. Kal.ii. 59. 118.[719]I have reason to think that the larvæ of some species ofHemerobiusthus protect themselves by a net-like case of silken threads; at least I found one to-day (December 3d, 1816) inclosed in a case of this description concealed under the bark of a tree: and it is not very likely that it could be a cocoon, both because the inhabitant was not a pupa, which state, according to Reaumur, is assumed soon after the cocoon is fabricated (iii. 385); and because the same author describes the cocoons of these insects as perfectly spherical and of a very close texture (384); while this was oblong, and the net-work with rather wide meshes.[720]Œuv.ii. 72.[721]Ibid.ix. 167.[722]Illig.Mag.i. 209-228.[723]Lesser,L..256.—Lyonet inserts a note to explain that Lesser's remark is to be understood only of such insects as live in societies; and adds, that solitary species do not assemble to pass the winter together. Lesser, however, says nothing about these insects passing the wintertogether, as his translator erroneously understands him; but merely that they assemble as ifpreparingto retire for the winter, which my own observations, as above, confirm. His expression in the original German is, "gleichsam als wenn sie sich zu ihrer winter-ruhe fertig machen wolten." Edit. Frankfurt und Leipsig 1738, p. 152.[724]Illig.Mag.i. 216.[725]Illig.Mag.i. 491.[726]Kyber in GermanMagazin der Entomologie, ii. 2.[727]Ins. Kal.ii. 188.[728]Spallanzani,Rapports de l'Air, &c.i. 30.[729]Carlisle inPhil. Trans.1805, p. 25.[730]Schmid in Illig.Mag.i. 222.[731]Since writing the above, I have had another opportunity of confirming the observations here made. The last week of January 1817, in the neighbourhood of Hull, was most delicious weather—calm, sunny, dry, and genial—the wind south-west, the thermometer from 47° to 52° every day, and at night rarely below 40°; in fact, a week much finer than we can often boast of in May: the 27th of the month was the most delightful day of the whole: the air swarmed withTrichocera hiemalis,Psychodæ, and numerous otherDiptera, and the bushes were hung with the lines of the gossamer-spider as in autumn. Yet, with the exception ofAphodius contaminatus, I did not observe a single coleopterous insect on the wing, nor even an individual tempted to crawl on the trunks of the trees, under the dead bark of which I found many in a very lively state. Five or six individuals ofHaltica Nemorumwere still very lethargic; and two ofGeotrupes stercorarius, which I accidentally dug up from their hybernacula in the earth at the depth of six or eight inches, though theAcariupon them were quite alert, exhibited every symptom of complete torpor.[732]Brahm,Ins. Kal.ii. 31.[733]Lesser,L.i. 255.[734]See above, p.4.375.[735]Recherches, 202.—In digging in my garden on the 26th of January 1817, I turned up in three or four places colonies ofMyrmica rubra, Latr. in their winter retreats, each of which comprised apparently one or two hundred ants, with several larvæ as big as a grain of mustard, closely clustered together, occupying a cavity the size of a hen's egg, in tenacious clay, at the depth of six inches from the surface. They were very lively; but though Fahrenheit's thermometer stood at 47° in the shade, I did not then, nor at any other time during the very mild winter, see a single ant out of its hybernaculum.[736]Kongl.Vet. Acad. Handling.1816. 104.[737]Huber i. 134.[738]Ibid. ii. 344. 358. See above, p.192—[739]BonnetOn Bees, 104.[740]Huber, i. 354.[741]Phil. Trans.1790. 161.[742]Reaum. v. 667.[743]Ibid. 682.[744]Ibid. 668.[745]Reaum. 678. Compare also 673.[746]Tracts, 22.[747]Vid. Spence inTransactions of the Horticult. Soc. of London, ii. 148. Compare Reaum. ii. 141.[748]Lister, Goedart.de Insectis, 76.[749]Reaum. ii. 142.[750]Œuvres, vi. 12.[751]Observations on the Animal Economy, 99.[752]Reaum. ii. 146-.[753]Rapports de l'Air, &c.ii. 215.[754]Reaum. ii. 170.[755]See above,438—[756]Here must be excepted my lamented friend the late Dr. Reeve of Norwich, who, in his ingeniousEssay on the Torpidity of Animals, has come to nearly the same conclusion as is adopted in this letter; but, by omitting to make a distinction between torpidity and hybernation, he has not done justice to his own ideas.[757]Vol.I.32.[758]Kyber in Germar'sMag. der Ent.ii. 3.[759]Since the publication of the first edition of this volume, I have had an opportunity of making some observations which strongly corroborate the above reasoning. The month of October in the present year (1817) set in extremely cold. From the 1st to the 6th, piercing north and north-west winds blew; the thermometer at Hull, though the sun shone brightly, in the day-time was never higher than from 52° to 56°, nor at night than 38°; in fact, on the 1st and 3rd it sunk as low as 34°, and on the 2nd to 31°: and on those days, at eight in the morning, the grass was covered with a white hoar frost; in short, to every one's feelings the weather indicated December rather than October. Here then was every condition fulfilled that the theory I am opposing can require; consequently, according to that theory, such a state of the atmosphere should have driven every hybernating insect to its winter quarters. But so far was this from being the case, that on the 5th, when I made an excursion purposely to ascertain the fact, I found all the insects still abroad which I had met with six weeks before in similar situations.[760]Hist. Nat.Edit. 1785, v. 277.[761]Beiträge zur innern Naturgeschichte der Erde1801. p. 298.[762]In hisPhilosophie Zoologique, Paris 1809 (ii. 325)—a work which every zoologist will, I think, join with me in regretting should be devoted to metaphysical disquisitions built on the most gratuitous assumptions, instead of comprising that luminous generalization offactsrelative to the animal world which is so great a desideratum, and for performing which satisfactorily this eminent naturalist is so well qualified.[763]Dr. Zinken genannt Sommer says, that if in August and September a snuff-box be left open, it will be seen to be frequented by the common house-fly (Musca domestica), the eggs of which will be found to have been deposited amongst the snuff. GermarMag. der Ent.I. ii. 189.[764]Sturm,Deutschlands Fauna, i. 27.[765]Œuvresii. 238. See above, p.256.[766]Apis.* *. e. 2. K.[767]Linn. Trans.vi. 254—.[768]Lyonet,Traité anatomique&c. 16—.[769]Vol.I.455—[770]Reaum. iii. 112-119.[771]Vol.I.172.[772]Œuvres, ix. 370.[773]Huber, ii. 134—.[774]Ibid. ii. 216.[775]Huber, i. 348.[776]Ibid. ii. 227.[777]Ibid. i. 119.[778]Huber, i. 233.[779]Ibid. ii. 239.[780]Ibid. ii. 240.[781]Huber, ii. 280.[782]Ibid. ii. 284, note *.[783]Huber, ii. 228.[784]Huber, ii. 221-226. 244-247.[785]Ibid. ii. 226.[786]Huber, ii. 230.[787]Huber, ii. 219—.[788]Œuvres, ix. 159.[789]Vol.I.487—[790]See above, p.186.[791]Huber, ii. 102.[792]Ibid. i. 186. ii. 412.[793]Ibid. ii. 264—.Vol.I. 497.[794]Huber, ii. 274.[795]Huber, ii. 275—.[796]See above, p.179.[797]Huber, i. 356.[798]Ibid. ii. 367.[799]The following striking anecdote of this last species of instinct in an animal not famed for sagacity, was related to me by Lieutenant Alderson, (royal engineers,) who was personally acquainted with the facts.—In March 1816 an ass, the property of Captain Dundas, R.N., then at Malta, was shipped on board the Ister frigate, Captain Forrest, bound from Gibraltar for that island. The vessel having struck on some sands off the Point de Gat, at some distance from the shore, the ass was thrown overboard to give it a chance of swimming to land—a poor one, for the sea was running so high that a boat which left the ship was lost. A few days afterwards, however, when the gates of Gibraltar were opened in the morning, the ass presented himself for admittance, and proceeded to the stable of Mr. Weeks, a merchant, which he had formerly occupied, to the no small surprise of this gentleman, who imagined that from some accident the animal had never been shipped on board the Ister. On the return of this vessel to repair, the mystery was explained; and it turned out that Valiante (so the ass was called) had not only swam safely to shore, but, without guide, compass, or travelling map, had found his way from Point de Gat to Gibraltar, a distance of more than two hundred miles, which he had never traversed before, through a mountainous and intricate country, intersected by streams, and in so short a period that he could not have made one false turn. His not having been stopped on the road was attributed to the circumstance of his having been formerly used to whip criminals upon, which was indicated to the peasants, who have a superstitious horror of such asses, by the holes in his ears, to which the persons flogged were tied.[800]Huber, ii. 64.[801]Ibid. ii. 138.[802]See above, p.171—[803]See above, p.127—[804]Huber, ii. 219.[805]Hume'sEssay on the Reason of Animals.[806]See above, p.263—[807]Huber, ii. 289—.[808]See Fischer'sBeschreibung eines Huhns mit menschenähnlichem Profile, 8vo, St. Petersburg 1816, and a translation in Thomson'sAnnals of Phil.viii. 241.[809]Vol.I.366.[810]Reaum. v. 709.[811]Œuvres, ii. 416.[812]Vol.I.380.[813]Huber, ii. 268.[814]Zoonomia, i. 183.[815]Reaum. vi. 283.[816]Vol.I.352.[817]GleditschPhysic. Bot. Œcon. Abhandl.iii. 220.[818]See above, p.117.[819]p. 222.[820]Apis* *. d. 2. β. K.[821]Nouveau Bulletin des Sciences, i. 45.[822]Reaum. v. 709.[823]Kalm'sTravels in North America, i. 239.[824]IlligerMag.i. 488.[825]"Hark! the bee winds her small but mellow horn,Blithe to salute the sunny smile of morn.O'er thymy downs she bends her busy course,And many a stream allures her to its source.'Tis noon, 'tis night. That eye so finely wrought,Beyond the search of sense, the soar of thought,Now vainly asks the scenes she left behind;Its orb so full, its vision so confined!Who guides the patient pilgrim to her cell?Who bids her soul with conscious triumph swell?With conscious truth retrace the mazy clueOf varied scents that charm'd her as she flew?Hail,Memory, hail! thy universal reignGuards the least link of Being's glorious chain."[826]See above, p.185and495—[827]If a hive be removed out of its ordinary position, the first day after this removal, the bees do not fly to a distance without having visited all the neighbouring objects. The queen does the same thing when flying into the air for fecundation. Huber,Recherches sur les Fourmis, 100.[828]See the account of the mode in which the Favignanais increase the number of their hives by thus dividing them. Huber, ii. 459.[829]See above, p.66.[830]Ibid. p.199.
[682]Reaum.f.3.l.
[683]Ibid.f.6.t t. f.9.
[684]PlateVIII.Fig.19. The figure given in this plate does not show the drums clearly; but the principal object of it was to exhibit the bundles of muscles, which are of a different form from those in Reaumur's figures; they are represented atC´´. C´´.in connection with the drums. The mirror is the part directly beneath these bundles.
[685]Hist. Ins.81.
[686]Hist. abreg.i. 168.
[687]IlligerMag.iv. 195.
[688]Nat. Hist.ii. 279.
[689]Geoffr. i. 167. De Geer, iv. 35.
[690]I call by this name all thoseLampyridæwhose head is not at all, or but little, concealed by the shield of the prothorax, and both sexes of which are winged.
[691]Vol.I.317.
[692]Pietro Martire,The Decades of the New World, quoted inMadoc, p. 543.
[693]P. Martire,ubi supr.
[694]Walton'sPresent State of the Spanish Colonies, i. 128.
[695]Iahrgang, i. 141.
[696]112.
[697]Walton'sHispaniola, i. 39.
[698]Tour on the Continent, 2d Edit. iii. 85.
[699]Ins. Sur.49.—The above account of the luminous properties ofFulgora laternariais given, because negative evidence ought not hastily to be allowed to set aside facts positively asserted by an author whose veracity is unimpeached; but it is necessary to state, that not only have several of the inhabitants of Cayenne, according to the FrenchDictionnaire d'Histoire Naturelle, denied that this insect shines, in which denial they are joined by M. Richard, who reared the species (Encyclopédie, art.Fulgora); but the learned and accurate Count Hoffmansegg informs us, that his insect collector Sieber, a practised entomologist of thirty years standing, and who, when in the Brazils for some years, took many specimens, affirms that he never saw a single one in the least luminous.Der Gesellschaft Naturf. Fr. zu Berlin Mag.i. 153.
[700]De Geer, iv. 63.—These insects, which were chieflyBrachypteraL.,Aphodii, spiders, caterpillars, but particularly the larvæ ofTelephorus fuscus, fell in such abundance that they might have been taken from the snow by handfuls.—Other showers of insects which have been recorded, as that in Hungary, 20th November 1672 (Ephem. Nat. Curios.1673. 80.), and one mentioned in the newspapers of July 2d, 1810, to have fallen in France the January preceding, accompanied by a shower of red snow, may evidently be explained in the same manner.
[701]p. 407.
[702]Linn. Trans.iv. 261.
[703]Latr.Hist. Nat.x. 262.
[704]Rev. Dr. Sutton of Norwich.
[705]Travels, 2d Ed. 334.
[706]Phil. Trans.1729. 204.
[707]Phil. Trans.1810, p. 281.—Mr. Macartney's statement on this point is not very clear. He probably means that the insect will not shine in a dark place in theday time, unless previously exposed to the solar light: for it is often seen to shine at night when it could have had norecentexposure to the sun.
[708]Annal. di Chimica, xiii. 1797.Phil. Mag.ii. 80.
[709]
"And for night-tapers crop their waxen thighs,And light them at the fiery glow-worms' eyes."
"And for night-tapers crop their waxen thighs,And light them at the fiery glow-worms' eyes."
[710]Some experiments made by my friend the Rev. R. Sheppard on the glow-worm are worthy of being recorded.—One of the receptacles being extracted with a penknife, continued luminous; but on being immersed in camphorated spirit of wine, became immediately extinct. The animal, with one of its receptacles uninjured, being plunged into the same spirit, became apparently lifeless in less than a minute; but the receptacle continued luminous for five minutes, the light gradually disappearing.—Having extracted the luminous matter from the receptacles, in two days they were healed, and filled with luminous matter as before. He found this matter to lose its luminous property, and become dry and glossy like gum, in about two minutes; but it recovered it again on being moistened with saliva, and again lost it when dried. When the matter was extracted from two or three glow-worms, and covered with liquid gum-arabic, it continued luminous for upwards of a quarter of an hour.
[711]Phil. Trans.1810, p. 287.
[712]Ibid.1801, p. 483.
[713]See above, p.225.
[714]Müller inIllig. Mag.iv. 178.
[715]iv. 49.
[716]Phil. Trans.1799. 157.
[717]Vol.I.452.
[718]Brahm,Ins. Kal.ii. 59. 118.
[719]I have reason to think that the larvæ of some species ofHemerobiusthus protect themselves by a net-like case of silken threads; at least I found one to-day (December 3d, 1816) inclosed in a case of this description concealed under the bark of a tree: and it is not very likely that it could be a cocoon, both because the inhabitant was not a pupa, which state, according to Reaumur, is assumed soon after the cocoon is fabricated (iii. 385); and because the same author describes the cocoons of these insects as perfectly spherical and of a very close texture (384); while this was oblong, and the net-work with rather wide meshes.
[720]Œuv.ii. 72.
[721]Ibid.ix. 167.
[722]Illig.Mag.i. 209-228.
[723]Lesser,L..256.—Lyonet inserts a note to explain that Lesser's remark is to be understood only of such insects as live in societies; and adds, that solitary species do not assemble to pass the winter together. Lesser, however, says nothing about these insects passing the wintertogether, as his translator erroneously understands him; but merely that they assemble as ifpreparingto retire for the winter, which my own observations, as above, confirm. His expression in the original German is, "gleichsam als wenn sie sich zu ihrer winter-ruhe fertig machen wolten." Edit. Frankfurt und Leipsig 1738, p. 152.
[724]Illig.Mag.i. 216.
[725]Illig.Mag.i. 491.
[726]Kyber in GermanMagazin der Entomologie, ii. 2.
[727]Ins. Kal.ii. 188.
[728]Spallanzani,Rapports de l'Air, &c.i. 30.
[729]Carlisle inPhil. Trans.1805, p. 25.
[730]Schmid in Illig.Mag.i. 222.
[731]Since writing the above, I have had another opportunity of confirming the observations here made. The last week of January 1817, in the neighbourhood of Hull, was most delicious weather—calm, sunny, dry, and genial—the wind south-west, the thermometer from 47° to 52° every day, and at night rarely below 40°; in fact, a week much finer than we can often boast of in May: the 27th of the month was the most delightful day of the whole: the air swarmed withTrichocera hiemalis,Psychodæ, and numerous otherDiptera, and the bushes were hung with the lines of the gossamer-spider as in autumn. Yet, with the exception ofAphodius contaminatus, I did not observe a single coleopterous insect on the wing, nor even an individual tempted to crawl on the trunks of the trees, under the dead bark of which I found many in a very lively state. Five or six individuals ofHaltica Nemorumwere still very lethargic; and two ofGeotrupes stercorarius, which I accidentally dug up from their hybernacula in the earth at the depth of six or eight inches, though theAcariupon them were quite alert, exhibited every symptom of complete torpor.
[732]Brahm,Ins. Kal.ii. 31.
[733]Lesser,L.i. 255.
[734]See above, p.4.375.
[735]Recherches, 202.—In digging in my garden on the 26th of January 1817, I turned up in three or four places colonies ofMyrmica rubra, Latr. in their winter retreats, each of which comprised apparently one or two hundred ants, with several larvæ as big as a grain of mustard, closely clustered together, occupying a cavity the size of a hen's egg, in tenacious clay, at the depth of six inches from the surface. They were very lively; but though Fahrenheit's thermometer stood at 47° in the shade, I did not then, nor at any other time during the very mild winter, see a single ant out of its hybernaculum.
[736]Kongl.Vet. Acad. Handling.1816. 104.
[737]Huber i. 134.
[738]Ibid. ii. 344. 358. See above, p.192—
[739]BonnetOn Bees, 104.
[740]Huber, i. 354.
[741]Phil. Trans.1790. 161.
[742]Reaum. v. 667.
[743]Ibid. 682.
[744]Ibid. 668.
[745]Reaum. 678. Compare also 673.
[746]Tracts, 22.
[747]Vid. Spence inTransactions of the Horticult. Soc. of London, ii. 148. Compare Reaum. ii. 141.
[748]Lister, Goedart.de Insectis, 76.
[749]Reaum. ii. 142.
[750]Œuvres, vi. 12.
[751]Observations on the Animal Economy, 99.
[752]Reaum. ii. 146-.
[753]Rapports de l'Air, &c.ii. 215.
[754]Reaum. ii. 170.
[755]See above,438—
[756]Here must be excepted my lamented friend the late Dr. Reeve of Norwich, who, in his ingeniousEssay on the Torpidity of Animals, has come to nearly the same conclusion as is adopted in this letter; but, by omitting to make a distinction between torpidity and hybernation, he has not done justice to his own ideas.
[757]Vol.I.32.
[758]Kyber in Germar'sMag. der Ent.ii. 3.
[759]Since the publication of the first edition of this volume, I have had an opportunity of making some observations which strongly corroborate the above reasoning. The month of October in the present year (1817) set in extremely cold. From the 1st to the 6th, piercing north and north-west winds blew; the thermometer at Hull, though the sun shone brightly, in the day-time was never higher than from 52° to 56°, nor at night than 38°; in fact, on the 1st and 3rd it sunk as low as 34°, and on the 2nd to 31°: and on those days, at eight in the morning, the grass was covered with a white hoar frost; in short, to every one's feelings the weather indicated December rather than October. Here then was every condition fulfilled that the theory I am opposing can require; consequently, according to that theory, such a state of the atmosphere should have driven every hybernating insect to its winter quarters. But so far was this from being the case, that on the 5th, when I made an excursion purposely to ascertain the fact, I found all the insects still abroad which I had met with six weeks before in similar situations.
[760]Hist. Nat.Edit. 1785, v. 277.
[761]Beiträge zur innern Naturgeschichte der Erde1801. p. 298.
[762]In hisPhilosophie Zoologique, Paris 1809 (ii. 325)—a work which every zoologist will, I think, join with me in regretting should be devoted to metaphysical disquisitions built on the most gratuitous assumptions, instead of comprising that luminous generalization offactsrelative to the animal world which is so great a desideratum, and for performing which satisfactorily this eminent naturalist is so well qualified.
[763]Dr. Zinken genannt Sommer says, that if in August and September a snuff-box be left open, it will be seen to be frequented by the common house-fly (Musca domestica), the eggs of which will be found to have been deposited amongst the snuff. GermarMag. der Ent.I. ii. 189.
[764]Sturm,Deutschlands Fauna, i. 27.
[765]Œuvresii. 238. See above, p.256.
[766]Apis.* *. e. 2. K.
[767]Linn. Trans.vi. 254—.
[768]Lyonet,Traité anatomique&c. 16—.
[769]Vol.I.455—
[770]Reaum. iii. 112-119.
[771]Vol.I.172.
[772]Œuvres, ix. 370.
[773]Huber, ii. 134—.
[774]Ibid. ii. 216.
[775]Huber, i. 348.
[776]Ibid. ii. 227.
[777]Ibid. i. 119.
[778]Huber, i. 233.
[779]Ibid. ii. 239.
[780]Ibid. ii. 240.
[781]Huber, ii. 280.
[782]Ibid. ii. 284, note *.
[783]Huber, ii. 228.
[784]Huber, ii. 221-226. 244-247.
[785]Ibid. ii. 226.
[786]Huber, ii. 230.
[787]Huber, ii. 219—.
[788]Œuvres, ix. 159.
[789]Vol.I.487—
[790]See above, p.186.
[791]Huber, ii. 102.
[792]Ibid. i. 186. ii. 412.
[793]Ibid. ii. 264—.Vol.I. 497.
[794]Huber, ii. 274.
[795]Huber, ii. 275—.
[796]See above, p.179.
[797]Huber, i. 356.
[798]Ibid. ii. 367.
[799]The following striking anecdote of this last species of instinct in an animal not famed for sagacity, was related to me by Lieutenant Alderson, (royal engineers,) who was personally acquainted with the facts.—In March 1816 an ass, the property of Captain Dundas, R.N., then at Malta, was shipped on board the Ister frigate, Captain Forrest, bound from Gibraltar for that island. The vessel having struck on some sands off the Point de Gat, at some distance from the shore, the ass was thrown overboard to give it a chance of swimming to land—a poor one, for the sea was running so high that a boat which left the ship was lost. A few days afterwards, however, when the gates of Gibraltar were opened in the morning, the ass presented himself for admittance, and proceeded to the stable of Mr. Weeks, a merchant, which he had formerly occupied, to the no small surprise of this gentleman, who imagined that from some accident the animal had never been shipped on board the Ister. On the return of this vessel to repair, the mystery was explained; and it turned out that Valiante (so the ass was called) had not only swam safely to shore, but, without guide, compass, or travelling map, had found his way from Point de Gat to Gibraltar, a distance of more than two hundred miles, which he had never traversed before, through a mountainous and intricate country, intersected by streams, and in so short a period that he could not have made one false turn. His not having been stopped on the road was attributed to the circumstance of his having been formerly used to whip criminals upon, which was indicated to the peasants, who have a superstitious horror of such asses, by the holes in his ears, to which the persons flogged were tied.
[800]Huber, ii. 64.
[801]Ibid. ii. 138.
[802]See above, p.171—
[803]See above, p.127—
[804]Huber, ii. 219.
[805]Hume'sEssay on the Reason of Animals.
[806]See above, p.263—
[807]Huber, ii. 289—.
[808]See Fischer'sBeschreibung eines Huhns mit menschenähnlichem Profile, 8vo, St. Petersburg 1816, and a translation in Thomson'sAnnals of Phil.viii. 241.
[809]Vol.I.366.
[810]Reaum. v. 709.
[811]Œuvres, ii. 416.
[812]Vol.I.380.
[813]Huber, ii. 268.
[814]Zoonomia, i. 183.
[815]Reaum. vi. 283.
[816]Vol.I.352.
[817]GleditschPhysic. Bot. Œcon. Abhandl.iii. 220.
[818]See above, p.117.
[819]p. 222.
[820]Apis* *. d. 2. β. K.
[821]Nouveau Bulletin des Sciences, i. 45.
[822]Reaum. v. 709.
[823]Kalm'sTravels in North America, i. 239.
[824]IlligerMag.i. 488.
[825]
"Hark! the bee winds her small but mellow horn,Blithe to salute the sunny smile of morn.O'er thymy downs she bends her busy course,And many a stream allures her to its source.'Tis noon, 'tis night. That eye so finely wrought,Beyond the search of sense, the soar of thought,Now vainly asks the scenes she left behind;Its orb so full, its vision so confined!Who guides the patient pilgrim to her cell?Who bids her soul with conscious triumph swell?With conscious truth retrace the mazy clueOf varied scents that charm'd her as she flew?Hail,Memory, hail! thy universal reignGuards the least link of Being's glorious chain."
"Hark! the bee winds her small but mellow horn,Blithe to salute the sunny smile of morn.O'er thymy downs she bends her busy course,And many a stream allures her to its source.'Tis noon, 'tis night. That eye so finely wrought,Beyond the search of sense, the soar of thought,Now vainly asks the scenes she left behind;Its orb so full, its vision so confined!Who guides the patient pilgrim to her cell?Who bids her soul with conscious triumph swell?With conscious truth retrace the mazy clueOf varied scents that charm'd her as she flew?Hail,Memory, hail! thy universal reignGuards the least link of Being's glorious chain."
[826]See above, p.185and495—
[827]If a hive be removed out of its ordinary position, the first day after this removal, the bees do not fly to a distance without having visited all the neighbouring objects. The queen does the same thing when flying into the air for fecundation. Huber,Recherches sur les Fourmis, 100.
[828]See the account of the mode in which the Favignanais increase the number of their hives by thus dividing them. Huber, ii. 459.
[829]See above, p.66.
[830]Ibid. p.199.