XIX 

 THE LAWS OF THE FLOCKS AND THE HERDS 



THROUGH a thousand generations of breeding and 

 living under natural conditions, and of self-maintenance 

 against enemies and evil conditions, the wild flocks and 

 herds of beasts and birds have evolved a short code of com- 

 munity laws that make for their own continued existence. 



And they do more than that. When free from the evil 

 influences of man, those flock-and-herd laws promote, and 

 actually produce, peace, prosperity and happiness. This is no 

 fantastic theory of the friends of animals. It is a fact, just as 

 evident to the thinking mind as the presence of the sun at high 

 noon-. 



The first wild birds and quadrupeds found themselves beset 

 by climatic conditions of various degrees and kinds of rigor 

 and destructive power. In the torrid zone it took the form 

 of excessive rain and humidity, excessive heat, or excessive 

 dryness and aridity. In the temperate and frigid zones, life 

 was a seasonal battle with bitter cold, torrents of cold ram in 

 early winter or spring, devastating sleet, and deep snow and ice 

 that left no room for argument. 



At the same time, the species that were not predatory found 

 themselves surrounded by fangs and claws, and the never- 

 ending hunger of their owners. The air, the earth and the 

 waters swarmed with predatory animals, great and small, ever 

 seeking for the herbivorous and granivorous species, and 

 preferably those that were least able to fight or to flee. The 

 La Brea fossil beds at Los Angeles, wherein a hospitable lake 

 of warm asphalt conserved skeletal remains of vertebrates 

 to an extent and perfection quite unparalleled, have revealed 



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