40 NO STRUGGLE NO SELECTION 



young in the Zoo ? ' Oh yes,' he replied, ' but they 

 breed very seldom.' 



" Now observe how your supposition, that the 

 instinct of the male of which we have been speaking 

 is the effect of confinement, is affected by the fact of 

 its being absent in the plantigrade or bear family. Is 

 there a more savage carnivorous animal than the 

 polar bear or than the grizzly bear ? Yet while the 

 lion in confinement is separated from the female to 

 prevent him from devouring her cubs, the males of 

 the fiercest kinds of the bear family are permitted to 

 remain in the same cage with the females both when 

 they are pregnant and when they bring forth. Is it not 

 very evident that the reason of the difference between 

 the behaviour of the lion and the male bear is that the 

 former belongs to a prolific family and the latter to a 

 non-prolific ? Now, what do you think of the story which 

 the Zoological Gardens have to tell us corroborative of 

 the instinct of the males of all prolific species ? " 



" It is very extraordinary," replied my friend. " I 

 have never before heard that it is the custom at the Zoo 

 to remove the males when the females are pregnant, or 

 that the litters are in danger of being devoured. No 

 such statement, as far as I know, has ever been 

 published." 



" Your amazement," I said, " is shared by myself ; for 

 even assuming that it could be regarded as a singular 

 effect of confinement, it cannot, I think, be considered 

 as other than a very noteworthy and extraordinary 

 circumstance that the males of so great a number of 



