216 THE HAUNTS OF LIFE 
losing its place in the sun. The cod-fish has 
its two million eggs, and there is terrific infan- 
tile 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 
successful. A race with selfish and stupid 
parents would tend to be wiped out. 
New KINDs OF PROTECTION.—There is an- 
other 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 an- 
swers 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 
