350 THE THEORIES OF EVOLUTION 



whip up a cloud of spray and blind him if it is a kite. 

 And while life continues to swarm on the lake, the 

 robber flies away uttering angry cries and tries to find 

 some carrion or a vouno* bird or field mouse that has 

 not yet learnt to heed the danger warnings of its 

 kindred. In the face of an exuberant life, the robber, 

 ideally armed, is reduced to feeding upon refuse." 

 Thus selfish, individual struggle compares with sol- 

 idary action. 



Association, Kropotkin adds, began with the dawn 

 of animal life; it is a consequence of the very physio- 

 logical constitution of certain invertebrates such as 

 bees and ants; it becomes more conscious or purely 

 social with birds and mammals. It plays in their ex- 

 istence a part at least as important as the struggle 

 between the various classes, and certainly greater than 

 intraspecific struggle and competition. The fittest 

 survive, but who are the fittest? Those who have 

 acquired habits of mutual aid? 



Among the various adaptations observable in the 

 animal kingdom, many aim precisely at preventing 

 intraspecific competition. The storing up of food by 

 ants, the migration of birds or beavers, the winter 

 sleep which begins when competition for food would 

 become terrific, the changes of food, are as many 

 means employed by nature to do away with competi- 

 tive struggle. Natural selection always asserts itself 

 and is a mighty factor, but how does its action make 



