212 THE HAUNTS OF LIFE 



born. Thus the old-fashioned Peripatus, which 

 we have already spoken of, carries its young 

 one for a year before it is born. This means 

 that the young Peripatus is able to creep about 

 soon after its birth ; it hides itself under the 

 mother's body and, after a while, under bark. 

 Just in the same way among wild horses, which 

 must always be on the move, the foal is carried 

 by its mother eleven months before birth, and 

 the result is that when it is born it is not help- 

 less like a calf (which is hidden in a thicket), 

 but is able very soon to stagger along beside 

 its mother. 



Among aquatic animals there is in many 

 cases a long larval life ; among terrestrial 

 animals the young are often born as miniature 

 copies of their parents from the first. This is 

 so even when a land animal is quite closely 

 related to one which brings forth its young in 

 the water. We saw that the young mountain- 

 salamander, which has no water stage, because 

 the streams are too swift, is born like its parent, 

 while its near relative, the fire-salamander of 

 the plains, which goes through the early stages 

 of its life in the water, begins as a tadpole, and 

 passes through several changes before attaining 

 the adult form. 



