Chapter III 



The Cannibal Habit in the Male 



AS has been already stated, the carnivora hold the 

 jf~\. key to the situation, and we must therefore con- 

 sider the applicability of Darwin's law to this species 

 more particularly. Let us take a certain area of the 

 jungle enclosing approximately one hundred pairs of 

 tigers. A tiger on the average lives thirty years, 

 breeds seven times during that period and gives birth 

 to three at a time. In each generation, therefore, 

 2100 are born, and of these only 200 individuals or 100 

 pairs survive to replace their parents and to procreate 

 their kind. The Darwinian believes that 200 survive 

 by virtue of superior variations, which give them some 

 slight advantage over the others, who to the number 

 of 1900 perish from the non-possession of these or from 

 less advantageous variations. The weaker, as happens 

 all through organic life, have gone to the wall and 

 perished. How did the 1900 perish ? It is well known 

 to those familiar with their haunts that they don't 

 attack or kill one another in the struggle for sustenance ; 

 such events are of the rarest occurrence. However, 

 let us strike off 100 killed in internecine strife — a num- 

 ber which would be considered much too large by all 

 travellers and hunters of big game. There remains 

 1800 to be eliminated before they have reached the age 

 at which they can propagate their kind. They don't 

 destroy each other, and they have no enemies which 

 can destroy them, for when the young are old enough 

 to come forth from their dens, their parents protect 



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