32 The Cannibal Habit in the Male 



them most effectively. How, then, does the elimination 

 take place ? The Darwinian would state positively 

 that it is the result of starvation. The food supply is 

 only sufficient for 200, and this number survive by 

 means of their superior variations, which enable them 

 to get their food and live. This infers that in the 

 limited area of the jungle which can comfortably 

 maintain in the aggregate 400 adults and cubs, there 

 perish from inability to get the necessary food 1900 

 in each generation. Yet the young that appear as food- 

 seekers are as well preserved and have their main- 

 tenance assured to them, as long as they are feeble and 

 immature, by the protecting guardianship of their 

 parents, and are only left to their own resources when 

 able to hunt and kill for their own subsistence. The 

 limited tract of jungle certainly does not contain 

 enough food for 2100, or half of that number, for any 

 lengthened period, but it would certainly maintain 

 them for a space, until all available supplies were 

 reduced to the vanishing point. If such a multitude 

 of devourers were let loose their natural prey would be 

 exterminated and the end would be the extinction by 

 famine of all the tigers themselves — parents and 

 progeny. We hope this argument will be duly weighed, 

 as it is most important and seems irrefutable. 



If the 1900 enter into the competition of feral life, 

 it must be admitted that very few are destroyed by 

 their own, or individuals of other, species. Internecine 

 warfare does not cause any considerable thinning of 

 their numbers, as testified by numerous hunters of big 

 game. While again, if all the progeny became food- 

 seekers, the only result would be a famine-stricken 

 existence, but not until they had made an end of their 

 natural prey. It is not possible to escape from this 

 conclusion. Ignoring this, however, let us assume that 

 1900 are doomed and unable to find food, and die of 



