36 . DARWINISM chap. 



mingled, so that in every extensive forest we have a consider- 

 able variety, as may be seen in the few remnants of our 

 primitive woods in some parts of Popping Forest and the 

 New Forest. 



Among animals the same law prevails, though, owing to 

 their constant movements and power of concealment, it is not 

 so readily observed. As illustrations we may refer to the 

 wolf, ranging over Europe and Northern Asia, while the jackal 

 inhabits Southern Asia and Northern Africa ; the tree- 

 porcu})ines, of which there are two closely allied species, one 

 inhabiting the eastern, the other the western half of North 

 America ; the common hare (Lepus timidus) in Central and 

 Southern Europe, while all Northern Europe is inhabited by 

 the variable hare (Lepus variabilis) ; the common jay (Garrulus 

 glandarius) inhabiting all Europe, while another species 

 (Garrulus Brandti) is found all across Asia from the Urals to 

 Japan ; and many species of birds in the Eastern United 

 States are replaced by closely allied species in the west. Of 

 course there are also numbers of closely related species in the 

 same country, but it will almost always be found that they 

 frequent difierent stations and have somewhat different habits, 

 and so do not come into direct competition with each other ; 

 just as closely allied plants may inhabit the same districts, 

 when one prefers meadows the other woods, one a chalky 

 soil the other sand, one a damp situation the other a dry one. 

 With plants, fixed as they are to the earth, we easily note 

 these peculiarities of station ; but with wild animals, which we 

 see only on rare occasions, it requires close and long-continued 

 observation to detect the peculiarities in their mode of life 

 which may prevent all direct competition between closely 

 allied species dwelling in the same area. 



The Ethical Aspect of the Struggle for Existence. 



Our exj^osition of the i)henomena presented by the struggle 

 for existence may be fitly concluded by a few remarks on its 

 ethical aspect. Now that the war of nature is better knoAvn, 

 it has been dwelt upon by many writers as presenting so vast 

 an amount of cruelty and pain as to be revolting to our 

 instincts of humanity, while it has jn-oved a stumbling-block 

 in the way of those who would fain believe in an all-^\ise and 



