do not only for their own young, but to any young who may be brought in
contact with them. We have known a male mierkat so assiduous in feeding
young that were quite unrelated to himself, taking to them every morsel of
food given him, that we have been compelled to shut him up in a room alone
when feeding him, to prevent his starving himself to death: the male
mierkat thus exhibiting exactly those psychic qualities which are generally
regarded as peculiarly feminine; the females, on the other hand, being far
more pugnacious towards each other than are the males.

Among mammals generally, except the tendency to greater pugnacity shown by
the male towards other males, and the greater solicitude for the young
shown generally by the female form, but not always; the psychic differences
between the two sex forms are not great. Between the male and female
pointer as puppies, there is as little difference in mental activity as in
physical; and even when adult, on the hunting ground, that great non-sexual
field in which their highest mental and physical activities are displayed,
there is little or nothing which distinguishes materially between the male
and female; in method, manner, and quickness they are alike; in devotion to
man, they are psychically identical. (It is often said the female dog is
more intelligent than the male; but I am almost inclined to doubt this,
after long and close study of both forms.) It is at the moment when the
reproductive element comes fully into play that similarity and identity
cease. In the intensity of initial sex instinct they are alike; the female
will leap from windows, climb walls, and almost endanger her life to reach
the male who waits for her, as readily as he will to gain her. It is when
the bitch lies with her six young drawing life from her breast, and gazing
with wistful and anguished solicitude at every hand stretched out to touch
them, a world of emotion concentrated on the sightless creatures, and a
whole body of new mental aptitudes brought into play in caring for them, it
is then that between her and the male who begot them, but cares nothing for