THE STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE 91 



social character of migration in the case of many 

 birds that usually live alone. 



Besides sociality, gregariousness, and co-opera- 

 tion, there are the associations of the pair and the 

 family, which evidently include much more than 

 squabbling round the platter. The struggle for 

 existence includes, as Darwin emphasised, " suc- 

 cess in leaving progeny." Macgilhvray found two 

 thousand feathers in the nest of the long-tailed tit. 



It goes without saying that mutual aid pays, 

 and pays because there is a universal struggle for 

 existence. We do not wish, therefore, to compUcate 

 the issue with psychological questions of egoism 

 and altruism, seK-regarding and other-regardiag ; 

 nor do we wish to make an antithesis between 

 mutual aid and mutual struggle ; our point is that 

 within the wide concept of Struggle — or Reaction to 

 Limitations — there is included mutual aid, and that 

 this mode of solution is attended with success — a 

 success which is more than survival, for it speUs 

 progress as well. As Kropotkin says: "Mutual 

 aid leads to mutual confidence, the first condition 

 for courage, and to individual initiative, the first 

 condition for intellectual progress." The intel- 

 ligence of the social birds, like rooks, parrots, and 

 cranes, has been the subject of admiration since 

 natural history began. 



Let us get away from mere words and into 

 contact with facts. Animals get hungry, they 

 seek their food, they endeavour to catch what often 

 endeavours not to be caught, they compete with 

 others who endeavour to catch the same elusive 

 prey, they have also to keep an eye on those who 

 are seeking to catch them while they are seeking 

 to catch something else, and meanwhile they have 



