108 REPRODUCTION 



the parent is in volume very small. This, as we have seen, 

 is much more economical to the parent, but it puts a long 

 period of immaturity and dangers before the offspring. 



In this situation the organism has two possible ways of 

 increasing the chances of enough offspring coming to 

 maturity. In the first place, it may produce a much larger 

 number of the single-celled offspring in order to overcome 

 the great fatality. Or, it may give especial care and 

 protection to the offspring and thus diminish the fatalities. 

 Indeed it may do both. It is in this care of offspring after 

 they are produced that the higher plants and animals excel. 



4. Parental Care of Offspring. You must not jump to 

 the conclusion that the care of young by parents is 

 necessarily conscious and deliberate. In man it is partly 

 so, but for the most part it is instinctive and unconscious. 

 It is none the less valuable on that account. The care of 

 offspring in some way or other is one of the most common 

 things in nature. That it is a good arrangement is 

 shown both by the wide-spread occurrence and by the 

 kind of success that comes to those species in which it 

 is best developed. Remember also that parental care 

 means sacrifice just as reproduction does. It is another 

 kind of sacrifice. 



5. Different Forms of Parental Care. The ways in 

 which parents may help their immature young are almost 

 as varied as are the plants and animals themselves. There 

 are, however, certain classes of caretaking that are 

 conspicuous because they are found so often. Thus we 

 note the storing up of extra food in the eggs, as in 

 reptiles and birds. Eggs may be laid where an abundance 

 of food will be found as soon as they are hatched, 

 as in flies, beetles, and many other insects. Parents 

 may give aid in hatching, by carrying the eggs 

 around attached to the body, as in lobsters, or by 

 incubation, as in birds, or by carrying the eggs and young 

 in the body during early development, as in the higher 



