Instincts graduated.
Aphides and ants.
Instincts variable.
Domestic instincts, their origin.
Natural instincts of the cuckoo, ostrich, and parasitic bees.
Slave-making ants.
Hive-bee, its cell-making instinct.
Difficulties on the theory of the Natural Selection of instincts.
Neuter or sterile insects.
Summary.
The subject of instinct might have been worked into the previous
chapters; but I have thought that it would be more convenient to treat
the subject separately, especially as so wonderful an instinct as that
of the hive-bee making its cells will probably have occurred to many
readers, as a difficulty sufficient to overthrow my whole theory. I
must premise, that I have nothing to do with the origin of the primary
mental powers, any more than I have with that of life itself. We are
concerned only with the diversities of instinct and of the other
mental qualities of animals within the same class.
I will not attempt any definition of instinct. It would be easy to
show that several distinct mental actions are commonly embraced by
this term; but every one understands what is meant, when it is said
that instinct impels the cuckoo to migrate and to lay her eggs in
other birds' nests. An action, which we ourselves should require
experience to enable us to perform, when performed by an animal, more
especially by a very young one, without any experience, and when
performed by many individuals in the same way, without their knowing
for what purpose it is performed, is usually said to be instinctive.
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