CHAPTER IV. 



CARE OF THE YOUNG IN THE ANIMAL KINGDOM. 



1. A General View of the Breeding Instincts of 

 Animals. 



HUMAN community life naturally evolves from the 

 family, which must always remain the founda- 

 tion of the state. Animal societies have a similar 

 origin and basis, though this similarity does not go 

 beyond mere analogy. Wherever we meet permanent 

 associations of animals, they are seen to depend, with 

 very few exceptions, such as for instance the mixed 

 colonies of ants, on the ties of common descent. The 

 purpose of this social co-habitation is the preservation 

 of the race and species. All other animal instincts are 

 by natural law subordinated to that higher end, which 

 is also the reason for the existence of social instincts 

 of animals. 



One of the most important means for preserving 

 the species is breeding, with the various instincts sub- 

 servient to it. The different forms of breeding in the 

 animal kingdom form one of the most interesting 

 chapters of comparative animal psychology ; in this 

 place, however, we must confine ourselves to some of 

 its more prominent features. 



With those lower animals, which reproduce with- 

 out sexual generation by fission or by budding, there 

 can be as little question of breeding instincts as with 



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