CHAPTER II 



EARLY DAYS AND EARLY WAYS 



The playfulness of kittens, the gambols of lambs, and 

 the helplessness of newly-born puppies have become 

 proverbial. But this playfulness, or its absence, is fraught 

 with a deeper meaning than most of us suspect, for these 

 early pulsations of life are most intimately bound up 

 with behaviour in the past and behaviour in the future. 

 For their right interpretation a host of facts have to be 

 taken into account that at first sight would seem to have 

 no possible connection therewith, and often no meaning 

 at all ; and this much will have become manifest, we 

 trust, long before the end of this chapter is reached. 



Naturally, one would suppose, this study of young 

 animals would begin at the moment of their birth, this 

 being as it were a common point of departure^ As a 

 matter of fact, however, this is by no means true. On 

 the contrary, birth occurs at very different stages of 

 development, the particular period or stage thereof being 

 determined by various factors, as we hope to show. 



To get a proper grip of all that is here concerned one 

 must remember that the mammal — from man himself 

 downwards — is developed from an egg, just as are the 

 fish, the frog, the reptile, and the bird ; nay^ more, 

 even some mammals are produced from eggs which in 

 appearance look very like those of a reptile. It is common 



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