REPRODUCTION AND SEX 559 



The male and female water-spiders seem to keep company and their 

 tempers all the summer through, which is more than can be said of 

 most of their kindred. The case of Darwin's frog {Rhinoderma 

 darwini) is very quaint, for the female lays eggs singly or in pairs, 

 at intervals of several days, and after the male has fertilised them he 

 stows them away in a croaking sac. He is said to be contentedly 

 monogamous, and perhaps this is not surprising when parental is 

 spelt paternal. Many birds are loyal mates for the season, but may 

 form other unions another year. Changes are lightsome, and the 

 problem of giving the family a good send-off is solved for each 

 successive year. For many mammals the same is true; they are 

 seasonally monogamous. This holds for lions and jaguars, while 

 foxes and bears show an interesting extension of the marital com- 

 panionship beyond the limits of the breeding season. Reynard the 

 Fox sometimes protects his playful children — who could resist them ? 

 — and brings them food. The same is true of wolves, yet everyone 

 knows that they become a pack in winter. 



But there may also be seasonal polygamy, which differs from 

 permanent polygamy, inasmuch as the association breaks up after 

 the breeding season is over. This is the case with many ruminants, 

 such as cattle, deer, and antelopes. There is a harem, more or less 

 loyal to a single male; but it is not likely to be the same male a 

 second season. In some cases, such as elephants, the situation is 

 complicated by the fact that there is a single female at the head of 

 the harem; and perhaps she has more power than the lord and 

 master of them all. Yet another complication is seen when there 

 is seasonal sex-association, either monogamous or polygamous, 

 within a herd or community. It is monogamous among marmots, 

 prairie-dogs, and white whales; it is polygamous among most of 

 the seals. 



Many animals have risen to the level of personal relations, but 

 linger at the stage of promiscuity. Any mature female may surrender 

 to any mature male. Any ripe male may be amorously excited by 

 any ripe female. These relations are above the level of automatic 

 spawning and fortuitous fertilisation, but they are promiscuous and 

 transient. Thus frogs pair and part; and though the croaking of the 

 males is a sex-call, there is no individual reference. Any female for 

 any male is the rule. The same promiscuity is illustrated by many of 

 the gregarious lizards, by such birds as ruffs and cow-birds, by such 

 mammals as hares and bats. The distinctive feature is not that a 

 male has to do with several females, or a female with several males, 

 for this would be true of polygamy and polyandry, but rather that 

 there is pairing without mating. There is little more or no more 

 than a transient sex-encounter. There is no "marriage". But in all 

 these matters it must be recognised that there are no hard-and-fast 

 lines. The roving hare has no doubt a psychical side to his passion, 



