CHILDHOOD OF ANIMALS 



fitted for the purpose of their own stage of life. They sometimes 

 suggest the future possibilities of the race, directions in which the 

 race may move. As the young animals mature they lose promise 

 and flexibility, and settle down to the average characters and average 

 limitations of their kind. 



Young Carnivores seldom differ notably from their parents. The 

 cubs of lions, tigers, leopards and jaguars, and the kittens of cats, 

 lynxes and caracals can usually be identified at a glance. They 



FIG. 6. Young American timber-wolf. 



are softer and more rounded, and differ in size and in proportions, and 

 they do not display characters limited to one sex, like the mane of 

 the lion, or special marks like the twisted, hairy tufts on the tips 

 of the ears of caracals and lynxes, and those which are uniformly 

 coloured when they are adult may be spotted when they are young. 

 The puppies or cubs of dogs, dingoes, wolves, jackals and foxes are 

 much more alike than the adults, and point clearly to descent from 

 a common and not very distant ancestor. Young wolves (the 

 drawing in Fig. 6 represents the cub of an American timber-wolf) are 

 quite like the puppies of domestic dogs, except that their ears are 

 erect. The difference is mental rather than physical. When they 

 begin to run about, they betray a shy and furtive disposition, as if 

 they expected no kindness or toleration from man. Young hyaenas 

 and civets, bears, raccoons and weasels, seals and sea -lions all closely 

 resemble their parents. 



