1 THE INFANCY OF ANIMALS 



life, which will afford us a better grip of problems which 

 at present elude us. 



That the period of infancy through which the human 

 species must pass is longer than that of any other creature 

 is a fact so obvious as to pass unnoticed by most of us ; yet 

 even in the human race it varies considerably in length, 

 more than is generally realised. Why is this ? Why, 

 indeed, should Nature have devised this callow stage ? 

 These are questions more readily asked than answered ; 

 for no sooner do we begin to frame replies than we find 

 ourselves at a loss. Our responses suddenly break off, 

 either because our stock of information is exhausted, or 

 because of the nebulous condition of such facts as we 

 possess, and our inability to find expression for them in 

 common speech. There are animals, as we shall see, which 

 while they may die of old age, and great-great-grandparents 

 into the bargain, yet never assume the bodily form proper 

 to their adult stages of life ! There are others whose 

 adult life is limited to a few hours : and some which, on 

 the other hand, have no period of infancy at all. 



This childhood of animals, as it has well been called, 

 presents us with a bewildering diversity of aspects, and 

 to avoid the danger of spoiling the conception of animal 

 infancy which we wish to conjure up, it will be necessary 

 to confine our survey to the more obvious and more im- 

 portant incidents. 



It has been said that every animal, in the course of its 

 life-history, climbs its own family tree. Time has shown, 

 however, that while this is true in a general way, it must 

 not be taken too literally, for we now know that many of 

 the characters displayed by young animals have been 

 developed to meet the conditions of existence pecuHar to 

 that phase of life in which they appear. The " egg-tooth " 



