556 



LIFE : OUTLINES OF GENERAL BIOLOGY 



criticism there seems to be no doubt that there is often gregarious 

 roosting in winter; and where the shelter is the old nest it is difficult 

 to hesitate in regarding the little group as a family party. If this is 

 the case, it is a simple extension of the family life beyond the 

 breeding season. In some species of ducks and geese the young birds 

 remain for the greater part of a year under the protection and tute- 

 lage of tlieir parents. Even in such pronouncedly predatory mammals 

 as the lion and the fox, the father stands by the mother and the 

 family for a long time, helping not only in defence, but in providing 

 food. At a much lower level in a few pioneer fishes we find indications 

 of the beginning of a bi-parental family. Thus in some of the wrasses 

 (Labrus) both parents make a nest of seaweed and zoophyte, pieces 

 of shell and debris, and both share in the protection of the eggs and 



Fig. 87. 



A Starfi.sh {Asterias miilleri), showing parental "care". A cluster of young 

 ones (Y), which have suppressed the usual pelagic larval stage, are seen 

 attached on the under surface of the mother. TF, tube-feet. 



the offspring. Prof. Doflein reports the interesting case of a fish 

 called Eupomotis, where both parents share in building and watching 

 the nest, to which the young ones return every evening for three 

 weeks after hatching. 



The second kind of family is maternal, where the mother takes 

 sole charge. Thus the female spider may not only carry the developing 

 eggs in a silken bag, which she will defend to the death, but she 

 sometimes bears the hatched spiderlings on her back till they are 

 able to fend for themselves. One must of course distinguish parental 

 care from parental family life, the distinctive note of the latter 

 being that the offspring remain for some time externally associated 

 with the parent or parents, from which they derive some assistance, 

 A mother-spider has been seen feeding her young ones with flies, 

 but this is very unusual! 



A hen with her chickens is a good example of a maternal family 

 under man's shield, but the same sight is common in Wild Nature 



