The Dawn of Mind 215 



must remember the adventurous life-history of the eel and the 

 quaint ways in which some fishes, males especially, look after their 

 family. The male sea-horse puts the eggs in his breast-pocket; 

 the male Kurtus carries them on the top of his head; the cock- 

 paidle or lumpsucker guards them and aerates them in a corner 

 of a shore-pool. 



3 



The Mind of Amphibians 



Towards the end of the age of the Old Red Sandstone or 

 Devonian, a great step in evolution was taken the emergence 

 of Amphibians. The earliest representatives had fish-like charac- 

 ters even more marked than those which may be discerned in the 

 tadpoles of our frogs and toads, and there is no doubt that amphib- 

 ians sprang from a fish stock. But they made great strides, 

 associated in part with their attempts to get out of the water on 

 to dry land. From fossil forms we cannot say much in regard to 

 soft parts; but if we consider the living representatives of the 

 class, we may credit amphibians with such important acquisitions 

 as fingers and toes, a three-chambered heart, true ventral lungs, 

 a drum to the ear, a mobile tongue, and vocal cords. When ani- 

 mals began to be able to grasp an object and when they began to 

 be able to utter sufficient sounds, two new doors were opened. 

 Apart from insects, whose instrumental music had probably be- 

 gun before the end of the Devonian age, amphibians were the 

 first animals to have a voice. The primary meaning of this voice 

 was doubtless, as it is to-day in our frogs, a sex-call ; but it was 

 the beginning of what was destined to play a very important part 

 in the evolution of the mind. In the course of ages the signifi- 

 cance of the voice broadened out; it became a parental call; it 

 became an infant's cry. Broadening still, it became a very useful 

 means of recognition among kindred, especially in the dark and 

 in the intricacies of the forest. Ages passed, and the voice rose 

 on another turn of the evolutionary spiral to be expressive of par- 



