176 CHILDHOOD OF ANIMALS 



on the mother until they are nearly full grown. I do not know of 

 any instances in which the males take care of the young ; generally 

 they either neglect them altogether or attack them and persecute 

 them. In a few cases the young are born in a high state of develop- 

 ment, recalling that of the ruminants. Young hares are able to see 

 and to follow the mother in a few hours after they are born. Young 

 guinea-pigs are furred, have their eyes open and are active almost at 

 once, and in a few days begin to nibble. Agoutis differ from their 

 parents only in size at birth, and almost at once begin to run about 

 actively. Porcupines also have their eyes open when they are born ; 

 their spines are present, but are white and soft, and it js only in a few 

 days that they become hard and serve as a protection. In these 

 cases, however, the animals live more in the open without a per- 

 manent abiding-place and, like ruminants, have to escape from their 

 enemies by swiftness. 



In most rodents brood-care begins before the young are born, and 

 the mother selects and prepares a nursery for her family. Rabbits 

 live in communities, and the burrows of a warren form a complicated 

 set of underground passages which lead into each other and are used 

 in common. The females, however, dig out circular chambers 

 opening off the main burrows, generally with two or three exits. 

 These they line with leaves, soft grass, and masses of fur plucked 

 from their own breasts, and the blind and naked young are guarded 

 for some weeks in these warm recesses. Squirrels construct winter 

 nests in the forks of branches and store provisions against hard 

 times. In early summer they build more open nests far out 

 on slender branches and there the blind and naked young are 

 cherished and protected for many months. Hamsters construct 

 most elaborate dwellings underground, and store up in them a great 

 provision of food for the winter, but in the breeding-season the 

 females hollow out larger and much less elaborate dwellings, 

 just under the surface of the ground, in which the naked young are 

 reared. All the rats and mice make most comfortable nurseries for 

 the young, collecting quantities of soft materials, such as wool, rags, 

 moss, paper, hair or feathers, and arranging them in a burrow or 

 hole. The harvest-mouse weaves a nest which can be compared 

 only with some of the most elaborate habitations constructed by 

 birds. It is made of narrow grasses, woven carefully into a globe about 

 the size of a cricket ball, and is suspended to stout herbs or blades 

 of corn. The walls are very thin, and there is no special opening, 

 the mother squeezing out or in through the meshes. The family 



