PARENTAL CARE AND NEST-MAKING 307 



limitations brings about the struggle for existence. The 

 ways of meeting the difficulties and limitations are many, 

 e.g. intensified competition, change of habit and habitat, 

 prolific multiplication. But we must not leave out increased 

 parental care and intensified parental instruction. Variations 

 in these directions have their survival value like variations 

 towards sharper claws, stronger flight, and an increased 

 clutch of eggs. (3) But the improvement of parental 

 instruction secures not only the survival of the offspring, 

 but better survival. The young creature gets a better send- 

 off on the adventurous voyage of life. 



(4) But this is not all. If a fish has a million eggs many 

 of which become larval fishes, parental care is unnecessary, 

 and it is obviously impossible. But fishes that have only a 

 few eggs, like sticklebacks, for instance, must exhibit parental 

 care, else they would have been long since wiped out. And 

 it is plain that fishes like sticklebacks and seahorses are vastly 

 more interesting creatures than cod and herring. Now in 

 the higher reaches of the animal kingdom, among birds and 

 mammals, this is still more true, and when the offspring are 

 well cared for, when they are not too numerous to be known 

 and loved, the result is not only success to the new generation, 

 but an enrichment of the life of the old. 



(5) In this and similar discussions it may seem at first 

 glance as if we argued in a circle. Animals with increased 

 fineness of nature, including kin-sympathy, practise parental 

 care and may educate their young, which in turn enhances 

 the parental nature. We believe that evolution works in 

 circles or in spiral curves in which the ascending line bends 

 back into and intersects a lower line. 



If a bird is a sympathetic and enthusiastic parent it will 

 succeed with a small family ; but having a small family — 

 knowable and lovable personally — will tighten the parental 

 cords of affection. We do not suppose that this tightening 

 of the individual cords will be entailed on the next genera- 

 tion, yet it will make for success as brood succeeds brood. 

 It will afford the liberating stimulus for all the intrinsic 

 kin-sympathy there is in the inheritance ; and enhanced 



