WHAT WE OWE TO DARWIN 13 



lessly : that is Struggle between Foes. The foes 

 do not need to be well matched. Alfred Russel 

 Wallace has recently told us of a pair of blue tits, 

 with a large family, who worked for sixteen hours 

 a day at midsummer, and it was estimated that 

 they captured in that time about two thousand 

 caterpillars and grubs. A locust-bird at work is 

 another good instance of a one-sided struggle. 

 Nor do the foes need to compete directly it will 

 suffice if both seek the same food, the same locality, 

 the same anything, (c) Darwin recognised a 

 third great mode of the struggle for existence 

 when he spoke, for instance, of a plant on the 

 edge of the desert struggling for life against the 

 drought, and of the birds struggling against the 

 winter. This is the Struggle with Fate. 



As a number of illustrious living naturalists 

 persist in maintaining that what Darwin mainly 

 thought of was the struggle between near kin 

 for room in the nest, for food at the platter, 

 for foothold on the rock, and so on, we must 

 remember Darwin's emphatic statement that he 

 used the term "in a large and metaphorical 

 sense." He speaks of two " canine animals " 

 struggling with each other in a time of dearth ; 

 of mistletoe versus mistletoe on the same branch ; 

 of mistletoe versus other fruit-bearing plants ; 

 of a plant on the edge of the desert in days of 

 drought ; and then says, " In these several senses, 

 which pass into each other, I use, for convenience' 

 sake, the general term of Struggle for Existence." 

 The fact is that the " struggle for existence " is a 

 formula-phrase including all the reactions and 

 endeavours of living creatures in face of difficulties 

 and limitations. 



