THE SERVAL CAT 



breeding season, the males become very aggressive 

 in their demeanour to one another, and fight most 

 desperately, and in this way numbers are destroyed. 

 These cats are all very jealous of their hunting- 

 grounds, and bitterly resent the intrusion of others 

 of their kind, knowing instinctively that their food 

 supply would soon become exhausted should too 

 many of them live in proximity. The chief factors, 

 no doubt, in checking the too rapid increase of 

 carnivorous animals are epidemics of disease and 

 starvation, for it is obvious that if the flesh-eating 

 animals in any district unduly increase in numbers, 

 the animals which furnish their food supply 

 diminish proportionately. Should famishing car- 

 nivorous animals invade other parts of the country, 

 they usually find them already occupied by those 

 of their kind, and these strongly resist the invasion 

 of their game preserves. It is simply a matter of 

 self-preservation, and their destructive passions are 

 at once aroused. This instinct, if we can term it 

 such, is widespread, and even embraces the human 

 species, for past history shows that of all things 

 which men resented most, it was the invasion by 

 others of a different tribe or nation of the territories 

 which they had grown up to regard as their own. 

 This is a wise provision of Nature, for the first 

 step in both physical and mental degeneration is 

 overcrowding. Should this occur, in spite of 

 Nature's efforts to prevent it, epidemics of disease 

 break out and sweep off the surplus, and once again 



H3 



