68 BOMBAY DUCKS 



upon the scene, those animals to survive were by no 

 means always the ideally fit, but those who were best 

 able to adapt themselves to the nook or cranny in the 

 world that Nature assigned to them. Man, however, 

 has been more ruthless than even Nature in the destruc- 

 tion of the nobler mammals. 



There is an ancient fable that tells of a staunch old 

 oak and a feeble sapling which grew side by side in a 

 forest. A mighty tempest came, the oak tree bravely 

 held up its head and haughtily refused to bow down 

 before the storm, so it was uprooted and died a noble 

 death. The sapling, on the other hand, meekly bent 

 before the stormy blast, acknowledging its supremacy ; 

 so the gale passed over it leaving it unharmed. 



This fable explains the survival of the unfit. 



Before man was evolved the world may be compared 

 to India in pre-British times. There were conquering 

 species and conquered ones. No one race stood head 

 and shoulders above all the rest. Now one species 

 established a supremacy, now another, but the position 

 was invariably a short-lived one, and, even while it 

 lasted, was constantly in jeopardy. 



In those days, great pachyderms disputed with 

 monster edentates and powerful carnivora the supre- 

 macy of the earth ; sometimes one prevailed for a little, 

 sometimes another. Often these conquering species 

 existed side by side, maintaining a kind of armed 

 neutrality, half afraid of each other, and contemptuous 

 of the great mass of the animals, allowing them to 

 occupy those places in the earth which they themselves 

 could not fill. Then suddenly one species prevailed. 



