FIELD AND STUDY 



feeders. The more varied an animal's diet,, the more 

 the animal abounds. How vastly more numerous 

 the crows than the hawks ! The crow is an omnivo- 

 rous feeder. Rats and mice are omnivorous feeders. 

 Bears have a wider dietary than wolves and cats. 

 Squirrels are wide feeders. Weasels are very narrow 

 feeders; they are blood-suckers. The purely insectiv- 

 orous birds are less numerous than the birds that 

 feed on both seeds and insects. The English sparrow 

 is an omnivorous feeder, hence its numbers. Some 

 birds seem to have a fuller measure of life than 

 others, — our robin, for instance. What a hustler 

 — breeding three times during the season ! 



Life to most creatures is both a battle and a festi- 

 val. The Darwinian struggle for existence is a battle 

 of varying degrees of intensity, while the breeding- 

 instinct, which is the central and dominating fact 

 in all animal life, gives rise to the festival. True it is 

 that the festival is at times red with battle, and the 

 battle may have gay and festive moments, but on 

 the whole the two phases of life are pretty clearly 

 defined. 



How are we going to reconcile the rule of uni- 

 versal nature, that might makes right, that the 

 strong do and must prevail over the weak, with the 

 ethical and individual standards by which we try 

 to conduct our lives .^^ Is there any ground of recon- 



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