24 NO STRUGGLE NO SELECTION 



have read articles dealing with the rat, with the 

 weasel, and with other wild species which, un- 

 fortunately, I cannot at this moment recall, in which 

 the writers from their own observation stated that the 

 males devour the newly born broods of the females if 

 they discover them. Some years ago, I read in the 

 English Magazine an article in which the writer spoke 

 of a terrible battle that had taken place in a district 

 of India, called Seoni, between two great tigers. One 

 of them had brought down an antelope and was pro- 

 ceeding to devour it, when the other coming up 

 demanded the cession of the quarry to him. A tre- 

 mendous conflict took place, at the close of which the 

 tiger that proved victorious, having all his savage 

 nature aroused by the struggle and by the wounds he 

 had received, manifested his vindictiveness by eating 

 portions of his dead enemy. The victor himself was 

 afterwards found, not far off from the scene of the 

 battle, dead from his wounds. The writer having 

 described what had occurred, then went on to state 

 that he had never before heard of one adult ti^er 



O 



eating another, though it was well known in India 

 that a male tiger would devour its infant brood in the 

 absence of the mother. Some time ago I was on a 

 visit to a relative in the North of Scotland who was a 

 keen sportsman. One day at breakfast he informed 

 me that a mischance had that morning occurred. 

 His gamekeeper going to a cage that contained a pair 

 of ferrets found that he had been too late in removing 

 the male, for when he arrived the female was in pro- 



