

70 SUMMER 



A curious sharing of mother qualities by male ( / 

 and female is shown in the Surinam toads of South / 

 America, where the male, taking the newly depos- I' 

 ited eggs, places them upon the back of the female. 

 Here, glued fast by their own adhesive jelly, they 

 are soon surrounded by cells grown of the skin of 

 the back, each cell capped by a lid. In these cells the 

 eggs hatch, and the young go through their meta- 

 morphoses, apparently absorbing some nourishment 

 I' through the skin of their mother. Finally they break 

 I through the lids of their cells and hop away. They 

 /' might as well be toadstools upon a. dead stump, so 

 r/fl far as motherly care or concern goes, for, aside from 

 allowing the male to spread the eggs upon her back, 

 : she is no more a mother to them than the dead stump 

 is to the toadstools. She is host only to the little 

 parasites. 



I do not know of any mother-love among the rep- 



I tiles. The mother-passion, so far as my observation 



goes, plays no part whatever in the life of reptiles. 



Whereas, passing on to the birds, the mother-passion 



\ , ; becomes by all odds the most interesting thing in 



/ bird-life. 



And is not the mother-passion among the mam- 



mals even more interesting? It is as if the watcher 



in the woods went out to see the mother animal only. 



It is her going and coming that we follow; her 



faring, foraging, and watch-care that let us deepest 

 into the secrets of wild animal life. 



I 





