42 CHILDHOOD OF ANIMALS 



rickety and did not live to maturity, so that its rate of growth was 

 abnormal. Caracals are a good deal smaller than jaguars or 

 leopards, and their cubs are nearly full grown when they are 

 a year old ; probably from one to two years is the duration of 

 their youth. Bears take longer to grow ; brown bears require 

 nearly six years, and Polar bears still longer to become adult. 

 The fur seal has been observed very closely in its breeding haunts, 

 and it has been ascertained that it is not adult until it is four 

 years old, but both sexes and especially the bulls continue to 

 increase in size after that age. Among domestic dogs there is 

 almost an exact parallel between size and the duration of youth. 

 They all mature quickly, but mastiffs are hardly mature at two 

 years old, large hounds and greyhounds at about eighteen months, 

 pointers and setters at from eighteen to fifteen months, whilst 

 fox terriers are adult at about a year and toy dogs at even less. 



Badgers are born in February or the beginning of March and 

 remain with the mother until the autumn, when they look after 

 themselves. They are practically adult at a year old, but may 

 continue to grow for another six months, the males, as in most 

 mammals, taking rather longer to fill out. Otters are born in 

 almost any season of the year and are adult in about ten months, 

 but may continue to grow for a few months longer. Weasels, 

 martens and polecats all take from nine to eighteen months to reach 

 their full size. 



It is impossible to arrange Carnivora in a scale extending from 

 the highest to the lowest in the fashion which can readily be done 

 with man and monkeys. They are all animals of a high type and 

 all show considerable intelligence, power of adapting themselves to 

 new situations, acquiring likes and dislikes to individuals, and 

 showing their distastes and preferences in the plainest way. No 

 doubt memory and the sense of locality have been specially developed 

 in the dog, because of its long association with man and from the 

 effect of selective breeding for qualities that man appreciates. My 

 tame caracal, which came from a stock certainly not modified by 

 human agency, learned the ways of a house as perfectly as any 

 domestic cat or dog. He allowed himself to be handled by those 

 he trusted with complete confidence, to take food or medicine from 

 a spoon, to have his claws cut and his ears cleaned out with disin- 

 fectant. He disliked being left alone and always followed his 

 owners from room to room. At night, before going to bed, he went 

 to the box that was prepared for him, and then came to have his feet 



