78 ORIGIN OF SPECIES 



easier than to admit in words the truth of the universal 

 struggle for Hfe, or more difficult — at least, I have found it 

 so — than constantly to bear this conclusion in mind. Yet 

 unless it be thoroughly engrained in the mind, the whole 

 economy of nature, with every fact on distribution, rarity, 

 abundance, extinction, and variation, will be dimly seen or 

 quite misunderstood. We behold the face of nature bright 

 with gladness, we often see superabundance of food; we do 

 not see, or we forget, that the birds which are idly singing 

 round us mostly live on insects or seeds, and are thus con- 

 stantly destroying life; or we forget how largely these song- 

 sters, or their eggs, or their nestlings, are destroyed by birds 

 and beasts of prey; we do not always bear in mind, that, 

 though food may be now superabundant, it is not so at all 

 seasons of each recurring year. 



THE TERM, STRtTGGLE FOR EXISTENCE, USED IN 

 A LARGE SENSE 



I should premise that I use this term in a large and meta- 

 phorical sense including dependence of one being on another, 

 and including (which is more important) not only the life 

 of the individual, but success in leaving progeny. Two 

 canine animals, in a time of dearth, may be truly said to 

 struggle with each other which shall get food and live. But 

 a plant on the edge of a desert is said to struggle for life 

 against the drought, though more properly it should be said 

 to be dependent on the moisture. A plant which annually 

 produces a thousand seeds, of which only one of an average 

 comes to maturity, may be more truly said to struggle with 

 the plants of the same and other kinds which already clothe 

 the ground. The mistletoe is dependent on the apple and a 

 few other trees, but can only in a far-fetched sense be said 

 to struggle with these trees, for, if too many of these para- 

 sites grow on the same tree, it languishes and dies. But 

 several seedling mistletoes, growing close together on the 

 same branch, may more truly be said to struggle with each 

 other. As the mistletoe is disseminated by birds, its exist- 

 ence depends on them; and it may metaphorically be said to 

 struggle with other fruit-bearing plants, in tempting the 



