THE STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE 31 



to contend h entrance in the lists is not a means 

 ordained for the numerical restriction of the species, 

 but contemplates rather the ordering of the gregarious 

 principle." 



" I have been thinking," said my interlocutor, " of 

 a fact which you appear to have forgotten, and which 

 seems to me to be quite at variance with your 

 hypothesis, indeed, altogether to destroy it. It is 

 well established by your friends the hunters of the 

 big game, that when the cubs of carnivorous animals 

 are first seen abroad, they are generally accompanied 

 by both parents, the male as well as the female acting 

 as their protector as soon as they are able to leave 

 their dens. Is it, I ask, imaginable that the same 

 animal which you describe as greedy to devour its 

 offspring at birth, should at this early stage of life 

 play the role of a loving protector ? " 



" It is nevertheless the case," I answered. " I 

 must confess that at first it gave me some thought 

 to account for it. A gamekeeper whom I once 

 asked if the fox was aware of the particular den 

 where the vixen brought forth her young, said he 

 did not think it was so at the beginning, but that 

 he had frequently seen the male carrying game to the 

 female and her cubs when the latter were quite young. 



" The first real light I received upon the matter 

 was from an old magazine article which con- 

 tained some excerpts from what was then a 

 recently published autobiography of Faimali, in his 

 day a celebrated lion tamer. Faimali states that 



