Care of the Young, in the Animal Kingdom. 147 



able it is to apply to birds the notions of marital and 

 maternal affection as it exists among men. As a 

 matter of fact, there is no more "marital affection" in 

 the human sense of the term to be found with a loving 

 couple of parrots than with spiders, where the smaller 

 male must be on its guard not to be devoured by the 

 larger female immediately after mating. And by 

 devouring her "husband" the female spider sins as lit- 

 tle against morals, as she acts conformably to them in 

 carefully protecting and carrying along her egg-bag 

 or in spinning a protecting web for her young. And 

 the female cuckoo smuggling her eggs into nests of 

 strangers acts as little against morals, as the foster- 

 parents of the young cuckoos act conformably to 

 morals in feeding and rearing these changelings. 

 There is no room for reason and morality in the breed- 

 ing instincts of animals ; for they are exclusively deter- 

 mined and regulated by the laws of organico-sensitive 

 life. 



The same holds good for mammals, the anthropoid 

 apes not excepted. As long as young dogs, cats, and 

 apes need the care of their parents, they will not be 

 forsaken. But no sooner are they old enough to shift 

 for themselves, than their parents no longer know 

 their once so "beloved" offspring. As the mates know 

 each other only for sexual intercourse, so also they 

 know their young only as helpless beings, whose 

 behavior stimulates the nursing instinct of their parents 

 to action. As soon as this instinctive impulse ceases, 

 then the mates and the young are completely estranged, 

 having no regard for each other in the .relentless 

 struggle for existence, for food and rut, just as if 



