Life History 



A. Youth. 



(1) Birth — date, manner, and place of birth; weight of young and peo'ents. 



(2) Number of young in a single litter; number of litters a year. 



(3) Structure and behavior — adaptation to protection and survival, 



(4) Growth — size, dimensions, weight, and stage of development at birth; 



ossification of bones; color of pelage; appearance of the skin, eyes, 

 teeth, hair; sonses; manner and rapidity of growth; date weaned; 

 date of leaving nest; earliest age at which young are capable of sur- 

 vival without parents; date of achieving mature growth; age of sexual 

 maturity; date of breeding, 



(5) Parental relations — condition and habits of young at birth as related 



to habits of parents; modes of feeding, carrying, and protecting 

 young; manner of keeping young warm; special habits and instincts 

 related to care of young; maladap tat ions in behavior toward young, 

 as smothering or eating them; attitude of males toward young. 



(6) Enemies of young — severe weather and other physical phenomena; plant 



and animal enemies; diseases, parasites, insects, competitors; modes 

 of opposing and escaping enemies; mortality rate of young. 



B. Maturity. 



(1) Breeding — structures and habits as related to breeding; territory or 



home range; methods of procuring mates; evidence of sexual selection; 

 courting antics; voice, songs or calls, behavior, odors as aids to 

 mating; relations and relative numbers of the sexes; normal or abnormal 

 increase in numbers, evidence of extraordinary reproduction; groupings 

 or aggregations of young or old males, pregnant fonales, or others; 

 dates of heat and copulation, associated hahits; condition and distri- 

 bution of mammae (mastology) ; length of period of gestation; place 

 and manner of birth of young; length of suckling period; hybridization 

 between related species; strength and duration of mating and family 

 ties; polygamy, polyandry, promiscuity, monogamy; acquisition of harem; 

 relation of parents to family; details of habits of parents during 

 period of dependency of young; habits in reference to young, brooding, 

 feeding, shielding, cleaning, providing with water, tending, guarding, 

 carrying young to place of better shelter; adaptations and maladap tat ions 

 in breeding habits; dates and manner of acquisition and loss of antlers 

 or other structures related to breeding. 



(2) Nests, shelters, and other places of resort—natural resorts at different 



seasons; shelter chambers, bowers, lairs, dens, forms, beds; nests, 

 storage chambers, chambers for deposit of excrement or for other pur- 

 poses; purpose of nests, individual nests, associated nests, cooperative 

 or composite nests, unoccupied nests; approaches to nests, burrows, 

 tunnels, runways; protection or concealment of nests through closing 



17 



