MATERNAL INSTINCTS: MOTIIKIUIOOD. 20£ 



obviously impracticable to descend to the ground and secure mud, vege- 

 table mould, and cliippagc, as is the custom with those species whose 

 cocoons are fixed upon various surfaces, and whoso makers can conveni- 

 ently resort to terra firma. In the case of our little Caudata, whose net 

 swings in the open air, the chippage of slaughtered insects is after all 

 the most convenient material at hand. Necessity here, as among human 

 creatures, appears to have been the mother of invention, aided much by 

 ojjportunity. The hard, dry shells are cut up into pieces, which are stuck 

 to every part of the egg sac until the whole is covered, often very closely. 

 Thus, in a single cocoon one will be able to detect the wings, head, elytra, 

 abdomens, and other parts of various orders of insects, many of them 

 having bright colors. 



In these various methods of exercising this general habit one can 

 find no motive which meets the facts of the case as well as that of ma- 

 ternal solicitude. Mother love has found expression in the armoring of 

 the silken vessel within which the eggs are enclosed, thus protecting 

 them from the enemies which are to beset them. The motive is none 

 the less potent, and none the less to be recognized, because of the fact 

 that the mother herself could have had no knowledge of tlie character 

 of those enemies to which her progeny would be exposed, and acted in 

 obedience to an imjtulsc within which wo can trace no factor of personal 

 reasoning. 



