CHAP. VI The Domestic Life of Animals log 



vellous. Thus W. Marshall saw an Ichneumon fly 

 {Polynema nutans) remain twelve hours under water, 

 without special adaptations for^such a life, swimming about 

 with her wings, and depositing her eggs within the larvse of 

 caddis-flies ! 



We are accustomed, the same naturahst says, to look 

 upon a hen which gathers her brood under her wings as a 

 picture of loving care, but we must recognise that the same 

 is true of earwigs, spiders, and scorpions. Many of us 

 have lifted a large stone on the dry bank, and seen the 

 hurry-scurry of small animals ; there are earwigs among 

 the rest, and the pale-yellowish young crowd quickly under 

 the shelter of their mothers, who stand guard with open 

 pincers. Female spiders, too, so fierce and impatient as 

 mates, are most "respectable mothers." Some make nests, 

 guard, feed, and even fight for the young ; others carry the 

 eggs about with them. " I have often," Marshall says, 

 "made fun of the little creatures, taking away their 

 precious egg-sac and removing it to a slight distance. It 

 was interesting to see how eagerly they sought, and how 

 joyously, one may even say, they sprang upon their 'one 

 and all ' when they found it again. Sometimes I cheated 

 them with a little ball of wool of the size, form, and colour 

 of the egg^-sac, which they quickly seized, and as rapidly 

 rejected." 



Many fishes lay their eggs by hundreds in the water, 

 and thenceforth have nothing more to do with them, but 

 even among these cold-blooded animals there are illustra- 

 tions of parental care. From a bridge over the river you 

 may be able to watch the female salmon ploughing a 

 fijrrow in the gravelly bed, and there laying her eggs, care- 

 ful not to disturb the places where others have already 

 spawned. In quiet by-pools you may find the gay male 

 stickleback guarding the nest which he has made of twined 

 fibres partly glued together with mucus. There the female 

 has laid eggs, but he has driven her forth : he will do all 

 the nursing himself. No approaching enemy is too large 

 for him to attack ; his courage equals his seeming pride. 

 When the young are hatched, but not yet able to fend for 



