102 THE ANIMALS AND MAN 



BIRDS 



The animals whose life-history we have so far studied 

 do not take care of their young, though making certain 

 provision for them nevertheless. The female mosquito, 

 although an aerial creature, is careful to lay her eggs on 

 the surface of water so that the young will find themselves 

 at the moment of hatching in their proper element; the 

 female moth or butterfly, although she never eats leaves her- 

 self, always lays her eggs on the plants or trees where 

 the young, on hatching, can find at hand their proper 

 leaf food. Such is the habit of all moths and butterflies. 

 Some of them indeed take no food in their adult stage; 

 others do, but this is always liquid nectar from flowers, or 

 other sweet juices, and water, and their mouth-parts are 

 formed into a long flexible, coiling, sucking proboscis. They 

 could not eat green leaves if they would; and yet each moth 

 and butterfly mother seeks out, at egg-laying time, that par- 

 ticular plant, unknown to her as food, the green leaves of 

 which, the young caterpillars must live upon; truly a re- 

 markable instinct! But beyond this care in laying their 

 eggs in suitable places the butterflies and moths have nothing 

 to do with their young. 



And so it is with most of the lower or simpler animals, 

 and with many of the vertebrates (backboned animals), 

 most of the fishes for instance, the amphibians, and the 

 reptiles. These animals pay little or no attention to their 

 young after birth; indeed many of the lower ones die before 

 the young are hatched, and those that do not may have gone 

 a long distance away before that time. But among the 

 higher vertebrates, the birds and mammals, and among a 

 few particularly interesting invertebrates, as the social 

 insects and others, the parents give much care and pro- 

 tection to their young, building homes for them, providing 

 them with food, and teaching them to help themselves. 

 Almost all animal homes are built primarily for the pro- 



