ANIMALS PERFORM THE BUSINESS OF LIFE 269 



bird protects and feeds its young, chances for growth 

 to adult life of an equal number are as good, if not better, 

 than in the case of the fish which leaves the young to look 

 after themselves. In the mammals, animals which suckle 

 their young, such as the cow, dog, cat, or man, the mother 

 not only carries the young in the body until it is ready 

 to be born, but also cares for it during babyhood thus 

 making its chances of growing to adult life much better. 

 In our own case we are cared for, not only during our life 

 as a baby, but also for a long time afterward. Animals 

 which are most successful in life are those which have best 

 solved the big problem of food-getting, protection from 

 their enemies, and rearing of young. 



SELF-TESTING EXERCISE 



Select from the following list those words which best fill in the blank 

 spaces in the sentences below and arrange the words in proper numerical 

 order. A word may be used more than once. 



swallow getting cutting 



food teeth tearing 



eggs nests protection 



care beak claws 



piercing catch suckled 



grinding holding people 



heads continuing adaptations 



kind homes releasing 



The two great problems of animals are the (1) of (2) 



and that of (3) their (4) on the earth. Food (5) 



largely depends upon the (6) that the animal has which enables 



it to (7) and (8) its food. The (9) tell just what 



kind of food an animal eats. An herbivorous animal will have teeth 



for (10) and (11) while a carnivorous animal has teeth 



for (12) the prey and then (13) it with teeth and claws. 



You can tell from the (14) or (15) of a bird the kind of 



food it eats. Adaptations for the (16) and (17) of the 



young are numerous. Some build (18) , some animals hide 



their (19) in places where they will be hatched by the warmth 



of the sun, while in animals when the young are born alive they 

 arc (20) by the mother. 



