52 " Natural Selection " 



logical deduction from the excessive prominence each 

 one gives to the various theories of animal coloration ; 

 for, if the chief foes of an organism are not the creatures 

 which prey upon it, how can the particular shade and 

 pattern of its coat be of such paramount importance 

 to it ? We shall endeavour to show that there are 

 checks on the increase of a species far more potent than 

 the devastation caused by those creatures which feed 

 upon it." They then proceed to set forth some of the 

 checks on the multiplication of organisms mentioned 

 by Darwin in the " Origin of Species" — the destruction 

 of eggs and very young animals which seem generally 

 to suffer most, and showing that once the average 

 animal becomes fully grown its survival is much 

 enhanced. This deduction is positively certain, and is a 

 necessary corollary of the cannibal habit of the male. 



Darwin's second " check " is the limitation of the food 

 supply. This must of necessity regulate everything ; 

 but it has been clearly proved that the numbers of a 

 species never increase beyond the means of subsistence. 

 As we have demonstrated already, if the vegetation, 

 for example, in a certain area of the African jungle 

 keeps uniform, the antelopes do not increase beyond the 

 number which can comfortably feed thereon ; and 

 similarly the ferocious and unconquerable lion does not 

 increase, but bears a uniform ratio to the numbers of 

 the antelopes, which are its chief means of subsistence. 

 We have already pointed out a strange fact : that the 

 first effect of a diminished food supply is an increase 

 in the number of young which survive and escape the 

 all-devouring male parent. This is nature's means of 

 restoring the loss among the adult members of the 

 tribe caused by starvation. Most famine periods are 

 temporary ; if by any chance the famine were long 

 continued, after a time the gradual extinction and 

 final extermination of the race would of^necessity 





