62 SAVAGE SURVIVALS 



instinct in the breasts of those least fitted to 

 have it? 



It is commonly said that the human mother 

 loves her child more than the father because the 

 child is a part of the mother's body. This is riot 

 true at all. Mother love among men is stronger 

 than father love for the same reason that the 

 mother bird or the mother bear loves her young 

 more than the father. The greater affection in 

 the mother originated in the pre-human forms of 

 life, and the human species simply inherited it. 



In the wild times in which this instinct origin- 

 ated the mother was the only one present at the 

 time young were born and the only one in whom 

 this instinct could be planted. It was better to 

 plant the instinct in the weaker members of the 

 species than not to plant it at all. If the sex rela- 

 tions of the animal kingdom had always been what 

 they are prevailingly among men today, if there 

 had always been a family with one father and one 

 mother in it, there is practically no doubt that the 

 protective instinct would have been developed 

 chiefly in the male in all animals, including man. 



Among some fishes the male assumes all the 

 care and anxiety of parenthood. And this is true 

 in at least one or two families of birds. The male 

 ostrich hatches the eggs and looks after the little 

 ones. The greatest enemy of the eggs and young 

 of the stickleback fish is the mother herself. She 

 not only has no affection for "them whatever, but 

 would eat every one of them up if she weren't pre- 



