d take no account of other species, and since any
number might occupy the same ground, the fact of its having established
a territory would not alone suffice to render its supply of food
secure. Success in the attainment of reproduction would then become
largely a matter of chance, depending upon the number of individuals
that happened to settle in this place or in that. In the second section
there would be perpetual warfare; for whereas the appropriate organic
condition which leads to pairing arises in different species at
different times, fresh claimants to occupied ground would constantly be
appearing, and the efforts of the inhabitants to preserve their
boundaries intact would have to be maintained throughout the whole
period of reproduction; and while the stronger or more persistent forms
would be more likely to breed, they would do so at the expense of their
young, to which they would be unable to devote proper attention, and
with an expenditure of energy that would reflect itself upon the future
of the race. But the conditions of life in the third section would be
such as would be more likely to yield good results. The relations of the
different members of the community would be more evenly balanced, for a
male would only be called upon to compete with those of its own size and
strength. Thus, on the one hand, accommodation would be so divided as to
secure the breeding of the maximum number of individuals with the
minimum of expenditure of energy, whilst on the other, any undue
pressure upon the available means of subsistence would be prevented.

There can be no question that in the latter section a higher percentage
of individuals would succeed in rearing offspring. And so, by reason of
the fighting instinct being more susceptible or less susceptible
according to the affinity of the opponents, a control is established
which, while preventing unnecessary extension of warfare, allows for
sufficient extension to render the biological end secure.

These, then, are the facts--this the conclusion which can be drawn from
them. It may, however, be said of these facts, as it has been said, with
even less justification, of the battles between individuals of the same
species, that they do not afford evidence of genuine hostility. No doubt
there are many naturalists who could supplement these facts with others
in which the conflicts resulted in bodily injury, or terminated fatally,
or at least were of a more determined ki