22 NO STRUGGLE NO SELECTION 



male cat some days before the parturition of the 

 female follows her about persistently wherever she 

 goes, while she appears to be in a state of great 

 excitement, and often in an access of rage flies upon 

 him and drives him off for the time being. I ask you 

 to take note of this fact ; for if the behaviour of the 

 male cat be representative as regards the carnivora, it 

 signifies that there must be some odour about a female 



O 



advanced in pregnancy that provokes the male to 

 keep her close company in expectancy of a feast to be 

 shortly provided for him. It points in my mind to a 

 provision of Nature to secure that the amount of elimi- 

 nation of the young shall be sufficient for her purposes." 



My friend here interposed : " What you say may 

 be quite true of the cat, which is a domestic 

 animal ; but have you any well grounded reason for 

 believing that the cannibal habit of the male cat is re- 

 presentative of the carnivora generally ? for everything 

 lies in your ability to prove that such is the case." 



"I shall endeavour to satisfy you," I answered. 

 " But you must consider that the concealment of their 

 lairs from the males on the part of the females, and 

 what happens before the young appear as food-seekers, 

 are among the secrets of feral life that are peculiarly 

 withdrawn from observation ; otherwise I should not 

 have been compelled from a review of the various 

 phenomena of feral life to deduce the fact that the 

 elimination of the excess of the young of carnivora 

 must take place before the survivors appear as food- 

 seekers. Yet I feel sure that if the observation of 



