3 i2 MIND IN EVOLUTION CHAP. 



older stag wanted to encourage the young one and get him 

 across the fence, and substantially, the ordinary reader is 

 right. The stag cannot analyse or describe his own 

 actions, and it would be a fallacy to impute the descrip- 

 tion to him. Nevertheless, it may be, and I think is as 

 nearly as possible the right description as given by a 

 looker on. It is of some interest in this connection to 

 contrast the abundant prima facie evidence of attachment 

 and affection among Birds and Mammals with the com- 

 paratively rare cases among the Lower Vertebrates. Apart 

 from one or two isolated stones of snakes, the evidence 

 for attachment to individuals among these classes is in 

 fact somewhat dim. Many that can be tamed tortoises, 

 for example do not appear to distinguish individuals, and 

 according to the statement already quoted from Brehm's 

 'Thierleben^ the crocodile does not distinguish between the 

 white man who shoots him and the black man who does 

 not. 1 Yet the distinction, if difficult, is material. In care 

 for the young, reptiles and amphibia appear for the most 

 part to be on a level with the higher Fish. The majority 

 of fish pay no attention to their very immature ova, and 

 accordingly enormous numbers are spawned to main- 

 tain the equilibrium of the species. 2 The most rudi- 

 mentary form of attention is shown, for example, by the 

 female Aspredo, which sticks the eggs to her, and so 

 carries them about. She hatches two thousand annually, 

 as against sixty thousand in the nearest species. 3 

 Similarly the females of Solenostomata and Doryrhamphus 

 carry their eggs in pouches. In other cases the male 

 carries the fertilised eggs in his mouth or in a pouch. 

 The dump-fish, again (Cycloptcrus lumpus), carries 

 its young, which adhere to it, into places of safety, and 

 the Angel-fish (Squatina) takes them if threatened into 

 its mouth. 4 Without fuller information than I have 

 found, it is very difficult to judge whether there is any- 



1 Brehm, VII. p. 24. 



2 According to Mr. Sutherland (Vol. I. p. 27), in 75 species represent- 

 ing 8 out of the 10 orders, the yearly average is 646,000 per female. It must 

 be remembered, however, that these are unfertilised ova, and are scarcely 

 comparable to the fertilised and well-protected egg of higher vertebrates. 



3 Loc. tit. p. 31. 4 Schneider, p. 379. 



