KROPOTKIN'S "MtfTUAL. AID" 103 



Steals from it a few sprays of straw, the group 

 interferes against the lazy comrade." Kropot- 

 kin presents a number of well authenticated 

 observations of the great compassion and sym- 

 pathy prevailing among those wild creatures, 

 which are popularly supposed to be always 

 flying at each others' throats: J. C. Woods' 

 narrative "of a weasel which came to pick up 

 and carry away an injured comrade;'' Brehm, 

 who "himself saw two crows feeding in a hol- 

 low tree a third crow which had a wound 

 several weeks old." Captain Stansbury, on his 

 journey to Utah, as quoted by Darwin, "saw 

 a blind pelican which was fed, and well fed, 

 by other pelicans upon fishes which had to 

 be brought a distance of thirty miles." 



From these and a multitude of similar cases 

 Kropotkin concludes that while "no naturalist 

 will doubt that the idea of a struggle for life, 

 carried on through organic nature, is the 

 greatest generalization of our century, that 

 struggle is very often collective, against ad- 

 verse circumstances." 



Kropotkin in concluding his consideration 

 of animals, immensely strengthens his posi- 

 tion by pointing out various methods by 

 which new species may develop or old ones 

 disappear, without the operation of a deadly 

 competition between individuals. "The squir- 



