Eastern times. [volume] (Bath, Me.) 1846-1857, 1854-07-06
Instinct Of Animals.

1t is said that the wOodcock in New jersey
is building its nest, this year, in open and
moist places and old huntsmen predict in
consequence that the summer will be dry
one. There was a time when science, or
what was called such, laughed at signs of this
description as no better than old women S
tales; but though many Of them are still un-
reliable, a larger observation of nature has
taught that animals have an instinct, which
not unfrequently becomes prophetic, as in this
example. At last years meeting of the Amer
ican Association for the Advancement Of
Science, curious paper was read on this
subject, by Mr. n B. Thomas, of Cincinnati,
who had, for several years, studied the habits
of animals in reference to the indications
which they might afford respecting the wealth
er. He showed that birds, if the season was
to be windy or wet one, built their nests in
sheltered places but if it was to be dry, in
localities more exposed that certain kinds of
snails always came out, and crept up the
limbs of trees several days before rain and
variabIy to be found under leaves and in the
hollow trunks of trees, hours before a storm
set in.
The sagacity thus displayed, if we may call
it such, seems to put the higher reason of
man to shame. In vain do our most expert
saUans endeavor to predict the character Of an
approaching season, or even to foretel, few
days in advance, the condition Of the weather.
The woodcock that unerringly fixes its nest in
the spot best suited for the coming summer, or
the snail whose tubercles begin to grow ten
days before the rain they are preparing to re-
ceive, appear, at first sight to surpass the more
developed man.. But the inferiority of these
lower orders Of animals is in the quantity Of
their endowments, rather than in the quality !;
they have single faculty developed to an ex-
traordinary degree, while man has, as it were,
faculties almost infinite. In thus adaptizing
each organization to its special position, the
wisdom of the Creator is forcibly exhibited.
The insect, the bird, or even the beast has
but narrow walk in which to move and out
of that walk il cannot venture. The butterfly
can sport only in the summer sun; the tropical
bird perishes under an Antarctic sky the
jackal cannot live on grass; the OK on flesh,
nor the lion on carrion. But man has the ca
pacity of adapting himselfmore or less to every
climate, to every variety of diet, to every avo-
cation he can lead nomade, an agricultural.
or an urban life though he has not wings to
fly, or muscles to give him the speed Of an
Arabian courser, he invents ships to cross
nents, and telegraphs to communicate intelli-
gence with rapidity before which the flight
even of the wood pigeon falters into the pace
Of snail If the bird was not to know where
to build its nest, it would fall a victim to rain
or drought But man has resources for every
emergency, and does not therefore need
prescient instinct.
The lower the animal the more perfect,
probably, is its instinct, though the more linn
tied and mechanical, Of course, its range. In
the higher order of animals, as in the dog, the
horse, and the elephant, it is impossible to de-
nv the existence of reason of a lower kind.
The instincts of such animals appear also to
be less acute than that of birds. Ascending to
man, we find instinct nearly, if not entirely,
absent; but reason developed, acutely, com
prehensively, almost divinely. The reason
of the horse is from simple causes to simple
effects; he knows who feeds him, whv he is
punished, and what the movements of the bit
imply; but for complex processes ofreasoning,
like even the simplest arithmetical problem,
he has neither any capacity naturally, nor can
it be impaired to him by education. A gulf,
forever impossible, separates him from man,
and marks him as a creature of lower and
different order.
The highest developed animal, short of
man, is, so to speak, but machine, kept by
his instincts as unerringly in his place as the
walking beam of a steam engine. But man is
an intelligence, with reason to guide him and
free will to choose for himself; and in this
not being mere machine, lies his pre-emi-
nence.-Philadelphia Ledger.
Be certain that he who has betrayed thee