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SUMMARY When a comparison is made between maternal weight and weight of young in mammals the significant relation is of maternal weight to total weight of young at a birth. A collection of data for 114 species is presented. The logarithms of maternal and newborn weights have a straight line relation from bats to whales. Relatively the larger mammals carry a smaller weight of young. Sources of variation in the ratio of weight of young to weight of mother are discussed and a brief comparison is made with the results of Heinroth's analysis of weights of birds and their eggs.
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Leitch et al. (1959) studied this question.
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