BROOD-CARE AMONG MAMMALS 171 



load of green vegetation, and then fly to a more sheltered place 

 to lie down and chew the cud. The mothers make no preparation 

 beforehand for their young, but retire for a few minutes to a thicket 

 and then drop the calves or lambs. One is the most usual number 

 at a birth, and twins or triplets are almost as rare as amongst human 

 beings. The young are born clothed with hair, with their eyes open 

 and their senses alert, and in a very short time, almost as soon as 

 the mother has licked them, are able to follow her. She then rejoins 

 the herd if the animals are gregarious. The mothers, however, are 

 very devoted to their young, and if there is a herd the bulls will 

 combine in defence of the cows with their calves, whilst in other 

 cases there is usually a family party consisting of the bull, one or 

 two cows and their calves. 



A new-born giraffe is able to stand up in about twenty minutes, 

 and to run freely in a day or two ; in three weeks it begins to nibble 

 herbage and in four months to chew the cud. So also all young 

 ruminants begin to chew the cud only some weeks after birth, and 

 the young, during the earlier part of their life, resemble their non- 

 ruminating ancestors. Deer are rather feebler than most of the 

 ruminants at birth. Very often they have to be helped up by the 

 mother, and usually lie for two or three days in a thicket before they 

 are able to follow the parent. Wild cattle, sheep and goats are 

 able to move actively in a good deal less time than deer, and chamois 

 and antelopes are extremely active almost at once, beginning to 

 play and being able to follow the mother when they are a few 

 hours old. The young Springbuck represented on Plate XII 

 (p. 250) was drawn from a kid a few hours after its birth in the 

 London Zoological Gardens. Young camels are active and playful 

 and can move about almost at once. They begin to eat in a few 

 weeks, but suckle for nearly a year. 



The Even-toed Ungulates that do not ruminate, the pigs, peccaries 

 and hippopotami, differ a good deal in their habits from the 

 ruminants. They are less disposed to seek safety in flight, the swine 

 and peccaries being well capable of defending themselves against 

 most enemies, and the hippopotami having few enemies to fear in the 

 rivers they inhabit. Wild swine and peccaries usually produce their 

 young in a dark and secret den, in the recesses of a cave, in deep brush- 

 wood, or even in the hollow of a huge tree trunk. The families are 

 rather large, a litter usually containing from four to a dozen, but 

 the smaller numbers are more frequent in wild animals than in the 

 domesticated races. The little pigs are feeble at birth and are 



