CHAPTER III 

 A BIRD'S NEST, AND OTHER ANIMAL HOMES 



The animals whose Hfe-history we have so far studied 

 do not take care of their young, though making certain 

 provision for them nevertheless. The female mosquito, 

 although an aerial creature, is careful to lay her eggs on 

 the surface of water so that the young will find them- 

 selves at the moment of hatching in their proper element ; 

 the female silkworm moth, although she never takes 

 food herself, in nature would certainly lay her eggs on 

 mulberry trees, where the young, on hatching, could find 

 at hand their proper food. Such is the habit of all moths 

 and butterflies. Some of them indeed take food in their 

 adult stage, but this is always liquid nectar from flowers, 

 or other sweet juices, and water, and their mouth-parts are 

 formed into a long, flexible, coiling, sucking proboscis. 

 They could not eat green leaves if they would ; and yet 

 each moth and butterfly mother seeks out, at egg-laying 

 time, that particular plant, unknown to her as food, the 

 green leaves of which the young caterpillars must live 

 upon ; truly a remarkable instinct ! But beyond this care 

 in laying their eggs in suitable places the butterflies and 

 moths have nothing to do with their young. 



And so it is with most of the lower or simpler animals, 

 and with many of the vertebrates (backboned animals), 

 most of the fishes for instance, the amphibians, and the 

 reptiles. These animals pay little or no attention to 



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