30 THE HAUNTS OF LIFE 
CANNIBALISM IN THE CRADLE 
The struggle for existence means all the 
answers-back that living creatures make to 
surrounding difficulties and limitations. It 
includes experiments in co-operation and 
mutual aid, as well as experiments in com- 
petition. At one time it may take the form 
of increased parental care; at another time 
it may mean a sharpening of teeth and 
claws. 
We must not blink those cases where the 
struggle is terribly keen—for immediate life 
or death. Let us take an instance. Fastened 
to the rocks there are great bunches of chaffy 
capsules—the egg-cases of the Great Whelk 
ot Roaring Buckie (Buccinum undatum), 
whose shell children hold to their ears. Some- 
times the bunch, made by several whelks 
working together, is as big as one’s head. In 
each capsule there are many developing eggs, 
and as these hatch out into larve they turn 
upon one another. Those furthest advanced 
eat the others—the leaders the laggards—till 
only a few are left in each capsule. This is 
struggle to the death at the very threshold of 
life. It is cannibalism in the cradle. The 
