Confidential Chats with Boys

by William Lee Howard

It is wonderful that with all the hundreds of different kinds of fishes in the ocean and rivers, the seed of the male will enter only the eggs of its own kind. It is the same throughout all life on the world; like can only reproduce like. If it were not so, we should have a sorry mess of mixtures and all life would die out.

When we leave the fishes and come to the higher scales of life, we see the same method of development from the union of the female and male elements—the egg vitalized by the male seed. But there is a difference in the methods of protecting the growing life in the egg. The fish simply drops her eggs and leaves them for the warm water to hatch. The birds deposit them in a ready-made nest and keep them warm by their own bodies.

The “frog spittle” you see on ponds and along the banks of streams is the mass of eggs and sperm from the male and female frogs. The bullfrog does not, like the male fish, throw his life germs over the eggs of his mate after she has deposited them in the water. This is done before she lets them leave her body. The frog’s method of vitalizing the eggs is that of all the higher animals.

When the eggs in the female are ripe for the male seed they lie inside her near their outlet. The bullfrog introduces his seed directly into her body at the spot where the eggs are waiting to receive it. A short time after this takes place the eggs are cast upon the waters and left for the sun to develop the little pollywogs, or tadpoles. When ready, those tiny fellows with their funny tails swim out and remain in large groups until their tails drop off and hind legs have grown.

If you have ever tried to stir up a large lot of “frog spittle” you have noticed how difficult it is to break up. This is another wonderful provision of Nature to protect her living and growing things. The greenish mass you see is a mucilage-like substance made to hold the eggs together. The real eggs are those tiny black spots. If it were not for this sticky material, the wind and waves would break up the whole mass and leave the eggs to be washed away and chilled. In other words, not one would send out a little pollywog, the wiggling frog bodies would be chilled to death. So remember that when you try to break up a lot of frog spittle you are really killing thousands of little pollywogs—frogs to be.

The same method of breeding takes place among the turtles and snakes. Only here the eggs are not cast off directly after receiving the male seed. They stay in the female, as they do in the birds and hens, until they have received a protecting cover. These reptiles have not reached the scale of the birds and hens; they are between the frog and the bird. As we have seen, the frog has the mucilage-like substance holding together the eggs; the hens and the birds the hard shell protecting each egg; the turtle and his like have a soft shell.

The turtle, alligator, and those of the same kind of reptiles do not sit on their eggs. The female makes a kind of a nest in the sand or dry mud, lays the eggs, covers them over with sand and leaves the sun to do the rest. There are, however, many differences in the manner of HATCHING, the way the eggs are protected, and how the little ones are left to shift for themselves. But the manner of starting each different form of life is always the same.

In the bird, as in all live creatures of the female sex, are what we call ovaries, from the Latin word ovum, meaning egg. These ovaries are situated in the body in the region we call the groin. These ovaries are little sacks which have the power of creating eggs. As breeding time comes, these eggs drop out from the ovaries and remain for a short time just outside the sacks, but still in the bird’s body.

Now the birds commence to mate, which is really nothing but the powerful instinct to reproduce their kind. The male bird is ready to be a father. He becomes vigorous, proud and strutting. His plumage is shining brilliant and he tries to show himself off before the females, who soon pick out their mates. The birds of the turkey or partridge type, dance, fight and sing in order to attract the attention of the females.

As soon as mating takes place, off the couples go to build their nests, both working together early and late to make a warm place for the little ones to be hatched.