CHAPTER III 



THE STRUGGLE OF LIFE 



I. Nature and Extent of the Struggle 2. Armour and Weapons 

 3. Different Forms of Struggle 4. Cruelty of the Struggle 



i. Nature and Extent of the Struggle. If we realise 

 what is meant by the " web of life," the recognition of 

 the " struggle for existence " cannot be difficult. Animals 

 do not live in isolation, neither do they always pursue 

 paths of peace. Nature is not like a menagerie where 

 beast is separated from beast by iron bars, neither is it 

 a melee such as would result if the bars of all the cages 

 were at once removed. It is not a continuous Waterloo, 

 nor yet an amiable compromise between weaklings. The 

 truth lies between these extremes. In most places where 

 animals abound there is struggle. This may be silent and 

 yet decisive, real without being very cruel, or it may be 

 full of both noise and bloodshed. 



This struggle is very old ; it is older than the conflicts 

 of men, older than the ravin of tooth and claw, it is as old 

 as life. The struggle is often very keen often for life or 

 death. But though few animals escape experience of the 

 battlefield and for some there seems no discharge from 

 this war we must not misinterpret nature as "a continual 

 free-fight." One naturalist says that all nature breathes a 

 hymn of love, but he is an optimist under sunny southern 

 skies ; another compares nature to a huge gladiatorial 

 show with a plethora of fighters, but he speaks as a pes- 



