216 THE HAUNTS OF LIFE 



its place in the sun. The cod-fish has its 

 two million eggs, and there is terrific infantile 

 mortality ; the golden eagle has usually two 

 eggs at a time, and the eaglets get a good start 

 in life. And when the family was small and 

 the parental care subtle, the parents that were 

 at once good and clever would be most success- 

 ful. A race with selfish and stupid parents 

 would tend to be wiped out. 



NEW KINDS OF PROTECTION. There is 

 another character which is absolutely necessary 

 to terrestrial life. Land animals must be able 

 to endure, or to accommodate themselves in 

 some way or other, to considerable differences 

 of temperature between sunlit days and chilly 

 nights, between hot summers and cold winters. 

 We ourselves have this difficulty to face, and 

 we solve it by wearing heavier or lighter cloth- 

 ing, and by heating or shading our houses 

 according to the weather. But we are alone 

 in doing this ; Nature has found different 

 answers to the puzzle for others of her children. 



A great many animals which find abundant 

 food in summer grow very fat in autumn, and 

 this coat of fat serves as a protection against 

 cold and against scarcity during the severer 

 months. The coats of fur-bearing animals 



