KROPOTKIN'S "MUTUAL AID'* 101 



of evidence of the existence of mutual aid 

 everywhere in the living world, from the lowest 

 insects to the highest mammals; and from 

 the first stone age to the twentieth century. 

 It consists of eight chapters, the first two of 

 which are devoted to "Mutual Aid among 

 Animals." 



Here, the theory of the human origin of so- 

 ciety is utterly demolished. Complex social 

 arrangements, popularly supposed to be lim- 

 ited to ants and bees, are shown to flourish 

 everywhere, especially among birds. 



With the parrot mutual aid is developed to 

 such an extent that Kropotkin places it "at 

 the very top of the whole feathered world for 

 the development of its intelligence." The 

 white cockatoos of Australia, in raiding a 

 crop, mutually aid each other so shrewdly as 

 to "baffle all stratagems" to thwart them. "Be- 

 fore starting to plunder a cornfield, they first 

 send out a reconnoitering party which occu- 

 pies the highest trees in the vicinity of the 

 field, while other scouts perch upon the inter- 

 mediate trees between the field and the forest 

 and transmit signals. If the report runs 'all 

 right,' a score of cockatoos will separate from 

 the bulk of the band, take a flight in the air, 

 and then fly towards the trees nearest to the 

 field. They also will scrutinize the neighbor- 



