90 DARWINISM AND HUMAN LIFE 



sociable animals higher up in the scale, the Vis- 

 cachas — burrowing rodents of South America. 

 When the farmer destroys a viscacha burrow and 

 buries the inhabitants under a heap of earth, other 

 viscachas, coming from a distance — ^for village 

 often visits village — dig out those that are buried 

 alive. There are thousands of similar facts, which 

 go to show that there is much more in the animal 

 world than a Hobbesian warfare — each for himself 

 and extinction take the hindmost. 



Besides animal societies in the stricter sense 

 there are many flocks and herds — ^gregarious rather 

 than social creatures ; and what we know of their 

 mode of Hfe, though it is not nearly so precise as it 

 ought to be, warrants us in saying that the vul- 

 garisation of the Darwinian picture of the struggle 

 for existence is inaccurate. There is an ugly 

 proverb which says that a wolf is a wolf to other 

 wolves, but Kipling's zoology is finer : there's a 

 law of the pack which means self-subordination. 

 We do not associate kites and vultures with fine 

 feelings, but the Brazihan kite is said to summon 

 its friends to the feast (when it is big enough), and 

 one of the strongest vultures is called — not without 

 good reason — the sociable vulture. 



There are instances of co-operation among 

 animals neither social nor gregarious ; thus a dozen 

 burpng beetles may combine to transport a dead 

 bird to soft ground. Every one knows that little 

 birds, like wagtails, will combine to drive ofi a falcon, 

 and there are many records of the frequent disap- 

 pointment of birds of prey when they visit the 

 lake-side crowded with ducks and terns and 

 plovers. It is quite certain that the battle is not 

 always to the strong. Another striking fact is the 



