HOMES AND HOME-MAKING 117 



This common tie inevitably leads to closer and more 

 permanent relations between the parents. We see this in 

 many birds. In most of the song birds those of a pair 

 remain faithful during the whole season; indeed in some it 

 seems that they are faithful through several years, or even 

 through life. The nest of such birds is a real, though 

 temporary, home in the very strongest sense of the word. 

 In those animals that have homes in which the young 

 are reared it is true, also, that there is a better opportunity 

 for the growth of the sympathetic instincts between 

 parents and offspring. The home becomes a center of 

 attraction. It is easy to see, therefore, that home making 

 for care of offspring is a great step in the development of 

 social instincts as against the purely selfish instincts. 

 Many illustrations might be mentioned, but it is among 

 the birds and man that we find this idea developed at its 

 best. In many species of ants and bees we have most 

 elaborate homes, but these are the homes of societies or 

 colonies rather than of families. Such social insects 

 illustrate a very striking form of home, therefore. The 

 termites, or white ants, most of the wasps, some of the 

 spiders, and some of the burrowing mammals as moles, 

 rodents, etc., extend the list of those animals that make 

 homes. 



3. The Home Idea Among Men. The earliest traces 

 we have of hum.an homes on the earth are caves, which 

 man found and adapted to his needs. Later he made 

 excavations of his own in the hillsides, as did the cliflf 

 dwellers of the western United States. Thatched cabins 

 and other primitive forms of structure have been known 

 in all parts of the world. The physical structure of the 

 home, however, is not an essential. It may be a cave or 

 a tree or a hut or a palace — the biological facts underlying 

 it are the same. These facts are — protection from the 

 elements, and from wild beasts; defense from other men; 

 a place to keep food and other essential property; a 



