CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX 



MAN MORE DESTRUCTIVE THAN THE OTHER ANIMALS 



We have learned something about the struggle among 

 the plants and animals for food and for room on the earth. 

 We must not think, however, that this struggle is at all 

 Uke the war that is carried on between different nations. 

 Wars are usually imnecessary and do more harm than good, 

 for they result in the loss of the strongest and best men. 

 But the struggle among the animals and plants has resulted 

 in good, for it has crowded out the weakest and those less 

 fitted to live. 



The struggle among all living things for food and a share 

 of the sunshine has covered the earth with a far greater 

 variety than there would otherwise be. Because so many 

 more are bom than there is room for, they crowd and elbow 

 each other. Many are forced to make their homes in re- 

 gions which they would not have chosen if they had been 

 free to do as they pleased. It is partly because of this 

 crowding that some of the animals which once Uved on the 

 ground became changed into birds and made their homes 

 in the trees. A number of the mammals found more free- 

 dom in the water and finally became whales, seals, and wal- 

 ruses. Many moved into deserts and, in learning to h've 

 with very little water, developed curious bodies and habits. 

 Some have found a home in the cold North, where they have 

 become suited to a climate which would quickly kill those 

 which had held their ground in the warm and moist tropi- 

 cal regions. 



Nature has thus filled the earth with an infinite variety 

 of living things, each of which is doing its part in making 



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