THE EVOLUTION OF A FATHER. 297 



have none. Now the brevity of this period in the 

 father's case must have told against his developing 

 any real affection. If he is to run away a few days 

 after the young are born he will miss all the disci- 

 pline of the home, and as this discipline is essential, as 

 this is the only way in which love can be acquired, 

 or inherited love developed, some method must be 

 adopted in his case to extend the period of home life 

 during which it can act. 



Now let us see how this was done. The problem 

 being to give Love time, the solution was in some way 

 to alter the circumstances which confined the pairing 

 season to a specific date — to abolish, in fact, the 

 pairing season in the case of Man, and lengthen 

 out the time in which husband and wife should stay 

 together. And as this was actually the method 

 adopted, we have first to ask what these special 

 circumstances were. Why should animals have speci- 

 fic dates at all ? The clue will be found if we examine 

 carefully what these dates are and the reasons Nature 

 has had for choosing them. Some wise principle 

 must underlie this, or it would not be the universal 

 rule it is. The pairing time with Birds, as every one 

 knows, occurs in the Spring. With Reptiles this is 

 also the case ; but among Mammals each species has a 

 season peculiar to itself, every separate month being 

 selected by one or other, and invariably adhered to. 

 " The bat pairs in January and February ; the wild 

 camel in the desert to the east of Lake Lob-nor, from 

 the middle of January nearly to the end of February ; 

 the Canis Azarae and the Indian bison in winter ; the 

 weasel in March ; the kulan from May to July ; the 

 musk-ox at the end of August ; the elk, in the Baltic 



