274 THE OVARIAN EGG. 



its support in other ways. Another most inter- 

 esting chapter connected with the maintenance of 

 animals is found in the various methods and dif- 

 ferent degrees of care with which they provide for 

 their progeny : some having fulfilled their whole 

 duty toward their offspring when they have given 

 them birth, while others seek hiding-places for 

 the eggs they have laid, and watch with a certain 

 care over their development, and still others feed 

 their young till they can provide for themselves, 

 or build nests, or burrow holes in the ground, or 

 construct earth mounds for their shelter, and by 

 a variety of means secure them from possible 

 dangers. 



But, whatever be the difference in the outward 

 appearance or the habits of animals, one thing is 

 common to them all without exception : at some 

 period of their lives they produce eggs, which, 

 being fertilized, give rise to beings of the same 

 kind as the parent. This mode of generation is 

 universal, and is based upon that harmonious 

 antagonism between the sexes, that contrast be- 

 tween the male and the female element, that at 

 once divides and unites the whole Animal King- 

 dom. And although this exchange of influence 

 is not kept up by an equality of numeric relations, 

 since not only are the sexes very unequally 

 divided in some kinds of animals, but the male 

 and female elements are even combined in cer- 



