STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE. gp 



tural knowledge. Nothing is easier than to admit in 

 words the truth of the universal struggle for life, or more 

 difficult — at least I found it so — than constantly to bear 

 this conclusion in mind. Yet unless it be thoroughly en- 

 grained in the mind, the whole economy of nature, with 

 every fact on distribution, rarity, abundance, extinction, 

 and variation, will be dimly seen or quite misunderstood. 

 We behold the face of nature bright with gladness, we 

 often see superabundance of food; we do not see or we 

 forget that the birds which are idly singing round us 

 mostly live on insects or seeds, and are thus constantly 

 destroying life; or we forget how largely these songsters, 

 or their eggs, or their nestlings, are destroyed by birds and 

 beasts of prey; we do not always bear in mind, that, 

 though food may be now superabundant, it is not so at all 

 seasons of each recurring year. 



THE TERM, STRUGGLE EOE EXISTENCE, USED IS A LARGE 



SElfSB. 



I should premise that I use this term in a large and 

 metaphorical sense, including dependence of one being on 

 another, and including (which is more important) not 

 only the life of the individual, but success in leaving prog- 

 eny. Two canine animals, in a time of dearth, may be 

 truly said to struggle with each other which shall get food 

 and live. But a plant on the edge of a desert is said to 

 struggle for life against the drought, though more prop- 

 erly it should be said to be dependent on the moisture. A 

 plant which annually produces a thousand seeds, of which 

 only one of an average comes to maturity, may be more 

 truly said to struggle with the plants of the same and other 

 kinds which already clothe the ground. The mistletoe is 

 dependent on the apple and a few other trees, but can 

 only in a far-fetched sense be said to struggle with these 

 trees, for, if too many of these parasites grow on the same 

 tree, it languishes and dies. But several seedling mistle- 

 toes, growing close together on the same branch, may more 

 truly be said to struggle with each other. As the mistle- 

 toe is disseminated by birds, its existence depends on them; 

 and it may metaphorically be said to struggle with other 

 fruit-bearing plants, in tempting the birds to devour and 



