30 THE HAUNTS OF LIFE 



CANNIBALISM IN THE CRADLE 



The struggle for existence means all the 

 answers-back that living creatures make to 

 surrounding difficulties and limitations. It 

 includes experiments in co-operation and 

 mutual aid, as well as experiments in com- 

 petition. At one time it may take the form 

 of increased parental care; at another time 

 it may mean a sharpening of teeth and 

 claws. 



We must not blink those cases where the 

 struggle is terribly keen for immediate life 

 or death. Let us take an instance. Fastened 

 to the rocks there are great bunches of chaffy 

 capsules the egg-cases of the Great Whelk 

 or Roaring Buckie (Buccinum undatum), 

 whose shell children hold to their ears. Some- 

 times the bunch, made by several whelks 

 working together, is as big as one's head. In 

 each capsule there are many developing eggs, 

 and as these hatch out into larvae they turn 

 upon one another. Those furthest advanced 

 eat the others the leaders the laggards till 

 only a few are left in each capsule. This is 

 struggle to the death at the very threshold of 

 life. It is cannibalism in the cradle. The 



