THE GAME OF DEATH 249 



luck apart, it was somehow, by some very small 

 margin, the least fit of to-day's flock. To-morrow, 

 perhaps, the last one that escaped to-day will fall. 

 It is not Nature's intention that we should escape 

 our enemies by miles. We must win or lose by 

 millimetres, and, whether we win or lose, Nature is 

 equally satisfied. If we can give the hawk a reason- 

 ably good race for his meal, we have done well, and, 

 if we are eaten, our cog has fitted the scheme just as 

 well as if we escape. And is it not evident that what 

 suits the machine suits every cog of it, whether it be 

 an eaten greenfinch or a satisfied hawk ? 



We cannot find, on the whole, any evidence that 

 Nature's tragedies are taken very seriously by the 

 victims. At any rate, the friends of the victim, and 

 even those who have escaped death by the smallest 

 margin, are not much concerned, once the danger has 

 passed. No more striking example of this can be had 

 than the slight regard paid to the fox by the rabbits 

 among which he lives, and from among which he 

 takes toll when he happens to be hungry. When he 

 is not hungry or hunting, he and his natural prey are 

 as friendly as Englishmen and Germans when there 

 is no war between them. Still more to the point 

 and more easily verified is the careless familiarity 

 with which roach treat the pike when the latter is not 

 feeding, or the friendliness that exists in a narrow 

 tank between a perch and the minnows provided for 

 his sustenance. There is no unnecessary suffering 

 from the fear of death. It would not do. The 

 animal that was eternally worrying about such things 

 would cease to thrive. It would be at a discount in 

 the struggle for food and when it came to die it 



