THE STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE 23 



naturalists and Nature-lovers had been directed to 

 discover what does take place when carnivorous 

 females are with young and when they bring forth, a 

 sufficiently large body of facts would have been 

 gathered to make it evident that the implanted pro- 

 pension of the males to devour their newly born 

 offspring is Nature's check upon the undue increase of 

 the species. You must acknowledge that this method 

 of restraining the various carnivorous species from 

 increasing their numbers unduly, if it be indeed 

 Nature's method, is congruous to and consonant with 

 the savage habits of creatures that obtain their daily 

 food by the slaughter of other animals : while if, as 

 kindly Nature does, we debar sickly sentiment and 

 look to practical beneficence, we will readily acknow- 

 ledge that this method is at once the shortest and 

 most direct, the most congruous to the nature of the 

 species concerned, and that which is effected with the 

 smallest amount of suffering or misery : for the pro- 

 cess of deletion so far as the young are concerned is 

 an absolutely painless one. 



" Nature, in short, separates for a brief period the 

 interests of the males from those of the females, so 

 that while the latter are concerned to bring forth 

 their young in safety and rear them, the former are 

 impelled by their instinct to track the females to 

 their lairs and devour their young. In the conflict 

 of their divergent interests the great majority of 

 litters perish, while a sufficient number are pre- 

 served to ensure the continuance of the species. I 



