nclusion in mind. Yet unless it be thoroughly engrained in the mind,
I am convinced that 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.

I should premise that I use the term Struggle for Existence 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 progeny. 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 properly it should be said to
be dependent on the moisture. A plant which annually produces a thousand
seeds, of which on an average only one 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 missletoe 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 will languish and die. But several seedling missletoes, growing
close together on the same branch, may more truly be said to struggle
with each other. As the missletoe is disseminated by birds, its
existence depends on birds; and it may metaphorically be said to
struggle with other fruit-bearing plants, in order to tempt birds to
devour and thus disseminate its seeds rather than those of other
plants. In these several senses, which pass into each other, I use for
convenience sake the general term of struggle for existence.

A struggle for existence inevitably follows from the high rate at which
all organic beings tend to increase. Every being, which during its
natural lifetime produces several eggs or seeds, must suffer destruction
during some period of its life, and during some season or oc