50 THE WAY LIFE BEGINS 



true, as both bird and mammal come from the fertilized egg, 

 the only difference being that layers of food are stored about 

 the egg of birds instead of gaining its supply, as needed, 

 from the blood system of the mother. This method of 

 feeding is not unlike nourishing the seed embryo of plants 

 with sap. 



Then, again, the young of birds at birth are either able to 

 pick up their food (poultry and their allies) or are given their 

 food partially digested by their parents (pigeons) or are fed 

 insects and worms (song-birds). Mammals, however, feed 

 their young for a longer or shorter time, a highly concentrated 

 food, milk, which is formed by especially prepared glands, and 

 stored temporarily in sacs, the mammae. So important is 

 this power to feed a prepared food and therefore to lengthen 

 the growing period of the young, that it has given the name 

 'mammals' to this great group. In this sense, then, man is 

 but a higher mammal. 



How Rabbits Rear their Young 



Wild rabbits or hares quite generally make their nests or 

 'forms' on the ground beneath a cover of grass or shrubbery. 

 The nest is nothing more than a slight hollow lined with fur 

 and grasses. The mother makes a kind of rough coverlet 

 under which she tucks her babies when leaving them. So 

 well hidden is the nest with leaves and litter that it is not 

 usually seen until the foot steps into it. (Plate VII.) Domestic 

 rabbits live in hutches following the burrowing habits of 

 their European ancestors. 



The young are carried but thirty days within the body 

 of the mother. (Plate VIII.) Cottontail young are born 

 quite hairless and blind (Plate VII), dependent upon the 

 mother for nourishment and such protection as the nest 

 may offer. So rapid is their growth, however, that they are 

 turned out to shift for themselves in three weeks. 



Although the mother, rabbit faithfully discharges her 

 maternal duties, the father rabbit shows no recognition of 

 his own family and is sometimes said to kill his own off- 

 spring. 



