goldcrests, robins, sparrows, wagtails, sedgewarblers, larks, blackbirds, wood-pigeons, night-jars, ringdoves, woodwrens, woodpeckers, linnets, blackcaps, whitethroats, jays, yellow hammers. "What chiefly struck one in watching the birds at the pond," says the writer of the article, "was the vast power of enjoyment these creatures possessed; every quiver of the tiny wing assured one of this, and every stray note that burst forth from the tiny throat like the overflowing of brimful joy.'" Nay, it seems that these tiny creatures can not only enjoy but even play-just like children, actually play! "In reference to the idea that set games are played by animals, the writer may mention a curious incident, witnessed by the late Andrew Crosse at his residence on the Quantock Hills. Looking one day from his laboratory window into a courtyard that was remote from any disturbance, he there saw a robin, dragging the apparently dead body of another robin, round and round in a circle, on the paved court. After continuing this strange proceeding several times, the mimic Achilles, with the corpse of the feathered Hector at his heels, stopped suddenly in his circuit round the fancied walls of Troy, and as suddenly threw himself on his back, as if stark dead, with half-distended wings, and rigid, upturned legs. Meanwhile the other robin, the seeming victim of a cruel triumph, woke up to full life, and seizing upon his companion, dragged him, in his turn, repeatedly round and round the mystic circle. The game ended, and both birds flew off together to the neighbouring trees.”

In the same article (Temple Bar for December 1891, p. 479), we have this droll account in reference to Otter Slides."

"These slides were as smooth and slippery as glass, caused by the otters sliding on them in play in the following manner-Several of these amusing creatures

combine to select a suitable spot. Then each in succession lying flat on his belly, from the top of the bank, slides swiftly down over the snow and plunges into the water. The others follow while he crawls up the bank at some distance, and running round to the sliding place, takes his turn again to perform the same evolution as before. The wet running from their bodies freezes on the surface of the slide, and so the snow becomes a smooth gutter of ice. This sport the old trapper had frequently seen continued with the utmost eagerness and with every demonstration of delight, for hours together."

And it is not always all play, or all enjoyment, on the part of the lower animals; on the contrary, there is frequently actual business conjoined, as the Notes of a Naturalist interestingly instruct us (see the Cornhill for February 1889, pp. 178-9).

"He (the jackdaw) flies about with the rooks and feeds. with them... it is most amusing to see the busy, methodical way in which he sets to work to rid an animal (a sheep) of its insect tormentors. All over its back and sides he hops and clings, the sheep standing quiet all the time, and knowing perfectly well that what the bird is doing is for its benefit.-One will frequently see horned cattle, sheep, and horses feeding on the same land, and four birds busy feeding in their midst―rooks, jackdaws, starlings, and wagtails, to give the alarm on the approach of any object." I daresay there may be those who will point to signs of battle here; but, surely, what would frighten the cattle would only be a man or a dog, while as for actual hostilities again, they are confined to the insects! Of course, such quotations as the above might be indefinitely increased. No doubt they are absolutely opposed to this internecine struggle for life, which is intimated to us. No doubt also they will illustrate the industry that is named of compilation!

That all that of the Descent of Man, say-should be supported, not on thirty years' actual observation, experiment, and insight-personally of the greatest naturalist in existence, but only on little more than so many years' clippings and cuttings from articles in periodicals and other such, as-about "Hearne the Hunter"!

We, however, if our respective position, so far, seem only weak, have it immediately in our power to render it at once impregnable by a reference to Mr. Darwin himself. It is perfectly within the limits of truth to say that his entire Journal disproves the struggle !

Mr. Darwin is no sooner at sea than he is amazed at the illimitable profusion of life there-of life, to say so, in its first rudimentary or mere food-state, as in confervæ and infusoria. The ship passes through great bands of animalcules infinite in number, and again through strips that are "whale-food" and consist of innumerable "prawn-like crabs," on which feed "terns, cormorants, and immense herds of great unwieldy seals." He is at a loss to imagine where the birthplace can be of these "millions of millions of animalcula and confervæ." "Whence come the germs?" he cries in astonishment.

But his surprise is not one whit less, as to innumerableness, even when the larger lives are anywhere in regard. Swarming, extremely abundant, immense flocks, countless herds, vast numbers, thousands, myriads, millions, millions of millions-predicates such as these are to be found passim in his book; and they are applied to an astonishing variety of living organisms:-flies, fireflies, butterflies, cicadae, crickets, spiders, beetles, ants, lizards, glowworms, toads, frogs, rats, mice, foxes, waterhogs, antelopes, deer, jaguars, pumas, guanacos, porpoises, seals, sea-otters, penguins, gannets, frigate-birds, terns, boobies, noddies, guinea fowl, egrets, cranes, ostriches, partridges, tucutucos, cuckoos, vultures, bienteveos, mocking-birds,

carrion hawks, buzzards, condors, petrels, parrots. "If we look to the waters of the sea, the number of organic beings is indeed infinite." "How surprising it is that any creatures (worms) should be able to exist in brine, and that they should be found crawling among crystals of sulphate of soda and lime!" On these worms, flamingoes" in considerable numbers" feed, as the worms themselves on infusoria or confervæ." "Well may

we affirm, that every part of the world is habitable! Whether lakes of brine, or those subterranean ones hidden beneath volcanic mountains-warm mineral springs the wide expanse and depths of the ocean-the upper regions of the atmosphere, and even the surface of perpetual snow-all support organic beings." All that relates to the grand scheme, common to the present and past ages, on which organised beings have been created." And in such a presence, "it is not possible to give an adequate idea of the higher feelings of wonder, astonishment, and devotion which fill and elevate the mind."1

So far, we have, on the part of Mr. Darwin, one sole reference to life-life infinite in its numbers, infinite in its varieties; and there is not as yet a note, a hint, a whisper, of those mortal straits in bitter struggle from whose fatal pressure only the fittest emerge. No doubt there is strife-life in some only through death in others. But yet scarlet-blood-cannot be called the colour of the scene. There is infinitely more of a smile in it than of a shriek. What is savage is in its paucity out of all proportion to what is tame.

But Mr. Darwin, too, gives his authority to the positive pleasures of existence, to the actual joys of nature. Even vultures, which are gluttons of flesh the greediest, have, Mr. Darwin (p. 59) assures us, "pleasure in Society." "On a fine day a flock may often be observed at a great 1 Journal, pp. 67, 94, 26.

height, each bird wheeling round and round without closing its wings, in the most graceful evolutions-clearly performed for the the mere pleasure of the exercise." Condors, he says again (p. 183)," may oftentimes be seen at a great height, soaring over a certain spot in the most graceful circles; on some occasions I am sure that they do this only for pleasure." This, too, is strikingly in point (p. 199): "One day I observed a cormorant playing with a fish which it had caught: eight times successively the bird let its prey go, then dived after it, and although in deep water, brought it each time to the surface" (what indolent repletion, what lazy satiety !)

Mr. Darwin (pp. 217 and 162) draws attention to the albatross. Once he says, "The storm raged with its full fury, but, whilst the ship laboured heavily, the albatross glided with its expanded wings right up the wind;" and again: “It has always been a mystery to me on what the albatross, which lives far from the shore, can subsist. I presume that it is able to fast long." The chionis alba is another bird spoken of (p. 94) by Mr. Darwin, which, too, seems capable of being content with short commons at times; for, although "it feeds on seaweed and shells on the tidal rocks, yet, from some unaccountable habit, it is frequently met with far out at sea." There is little sign of a struggle for life in such cases. These animals have evidently no need to struggle: they seem indifferent about their food, and can remove themselves carelessly from any supplies of it.

But, as we have seen sport, play-positively as of children before the door in the animal creation, on the authority of others, so we have no less such sport and play on the authority of Mr. Darwin. The bizcacha, he tells us, picks up miscellaneous articles it finds lying on the ground and groups them around the mouth of its burrow. So," a gentleman, when he was riding on a dark