Page - 266 - in The Origin of Species

266 ORIGIN OF SPECIES as possible ought to be given ; but want of space prevents me. I can only assert that instincts certainly do vary—for in- stance, the migratory instinct, both in extent and direction, and in its total loss. So it is with the nests of birds, which vary partly in dependence on the situations chosen, and on the nature and temperature of the country inhabited, but often from causes wholly unknown to us : Audubon has given several remarkable cases of differences in the nests of the same species in the northern and southern United States. Why, it has been asked, if instinct be variable, has it not granted to the bee "the ability to use some other material when wax was deficient"? But what other natural material could bees use? They will work, as I have seen, with wax hardened with vermilion or softened with lard. Andrew Knight observed that his bees, instead of laboriously collect- ing propolis, used a cement of wax and turpentine, with which he had covered decorticated trees. It has lately been shown that bees, instead cf searching for pollen, will gladly use a very different substance, namely oatmeal. Fear of any particular enemy is certainly an instinctive quality, as may be seen in nestling birds, though it is strengthened by experi- ence, and by the sight of fear of the same enemy in other animals. The fear of man is slowly acquired, as I have else- where shown, by the various animals which inhabit desert islands; and we see an instance of this even in England, in the greater wildness of all our large birds in comparison with our small birds ; for the large birds have been most persecuted by man. We may safely attribute the greater wildness of our large birds to this cause ; for in uninhabited islands large birds are not more fearful than small ; and the magpie, so wary in England, is tame in Norway, as is the hooded crow in Egypt. That the mental qualities of animals of the same kind, born in a state of nature, vary much, could be shown by many facts. wSeveral cases could also be adduced of occasional and strange habits in wild animals, which, if advantageous to the species, might have given rise, through natural selection, to new instincts. But I am well aware that these general state- ments, without the facts in detail, will produce but a feeble effect on the reader's mind. I can only repeat my assurance, that I do not speak without good evidence.