250 PHIL RAU AND NELLIE RAU. 



pillars had more difficulty in emerging from the clustered eggs 

 and that many died in the attempt, but it was soon found that 

 as many died in the shell in the loose as in the adhering eggs. 



Hence the proportion which go to the wall even up to the time 

 of emerging is large. We are reminded of Darwin's 1 statement 

 that the "... geometrical tendency to increase must be checked 

 by destruction at some period of life . . . and this period in the 

 great majority of cases is an early one. . . . But if many eggs 

 or young are destroyed, many must be produced or the species 

 will become extinct." In our present material it would seem 

 that nature, in making the attempt at providing so bountifully 

 for the perpetuation of the species, has overstepped the limits 

 of real economy by wasting so much unfinished material. 



1 "Origin of Species," 6th ed., p. 52, 1887. 





