102 Habit and Instinct. 



very immature young emerge, or marsupials, like the 

 kangaroo, in which the young are brought forth in an 

 immature condition, and are then transferred to a pouch ; 

 there is much difference even among the placental 

 mammals with which we are familiar. The day-old puppy 

 is far more helpless than the day-old lamb; the new-born 

 kitten is much more immature than the new-born guinea- 

 pig. And in comparing the activities, or the sensory 

 endowments, of the young at birth, this fact must be taken 

 into consideration. 



The puppy and the kitten, for example, can do little 

 more than crawl for some days after birth, and are slow 

 in attaining definite and accurate co-ordination of the 

 hind limbs. Eabbits, rats, and mice move about in 

 a sprawling, feeble way; and though a rabbit a day or 

 two old can stand for a moment, yet when he shifts his 

 position he only crawls awkwardly. Cattle, sheep, and deer, 

 however, can stand and walk very soon after birth. 

 " Though both the red and fallow fawns can follow the 

 hinds within a few minutes after birth," says Mr. Cornish,* 

 " the careful mothers hide them in the tall fern and nettles, 

 and it is only the older fawns that are seen in the open 

 ground or trotting with the herds. When the fawn is 

 born, the mother gently pushes it with her nose until it lies 

 down in the fern, and then goes away and watches from a 

 distance, only returning at intervals to feed it, or, if the 

 wind changes or rain threatens, to draw it away to more 

 sheltered ground." 



"I have had frequent opportunities," says Mr. W. H. 

 Hudson,f " of observing the young, from one to three days 

 old, of the Cervus campestris, the common deer of the 

 pampas, and the perfection of its instincts at that tender 



* « Wild England of To-day," pp. 124, 125. 

 t "The Naturalist in La Plata," pp. 110, 111. 



