lf, who thus concludes his chapter on the
struggle for existence: "When we reflect on this struggle, we may
console ourselves with the full belief that the war of nature is not
incessant, that no fear is felt, that death is generally prompt, and
that the vigorous, the healthy, and the happy survive and multiply."

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 4: _Geographic Botanique_, p. 798.]

[Footnote 5: _The Origin of Species_, p. 53.]

[Footnote 6: _The Earth as Modified by Human Action_, p. 51.]

[Footnote 7: _The Origin of Species_, p. 56.]

[Footnote 8: See _Nature_, vol. xxxi. p. 63.]

[Footnote 9: _A Visit to South America_, 1878; also _Nature_, vol. xxxi.
pp. 263-339.]

[Footnote 10: Still more remarkable is the increase of rabbits both in
New Zealand and Australia. No less than seven millions of rabbit-skins
have been exported from the former country in a single year, their value
being L67,000. In both countries, sheep-runs have been greatly
deteriorated in value by the abundance of rabbits, which destroy the
herbage; and in some cases they have had to be abandoned altogether.]

[Footnote 11: Later observers have proved that two eggs are laid and
usually two young produced, but it may be that in most cases only one of
these comes to maturity.]

[Footnote 12: _Origin of Species_, p. 59. Professor A. Newton, however,
informs me that these species do not interfere with one another in the
way here stated.]

[Footnote 13: Winwood Reade's _Martyrdom of Man,_ p. 520.]

[Footnote 14: _Nineteenth Century,_ February 1888, pp. 162, 163.]

[Footnote 15: The Kestrel, which usually feeds on mice, birds, and
frogs, sometimes stays its hunger with earthworms, as do some of the
American buzzards. The Honey-buzzard sometimes eats not only earthworms
and slugs, but even corn; and the Buteo borealis of North America, whose
usual food is small mammals and birds, sometimes eats crayfish.]

CHAPTER III

THE VARIABILITY OF SPECIES IN A STATE OF NATURE

Importance of variability--Popular ideas regarding
it--Variability of the lower animals--The variability of
insects--Variation among lizards--Variation among
birds--Diagrams of bird-variation--Number of varying
individuals--Variation in the mammalia--Variation in internal
organs--Variations in the skull--Variations in the habits of
Animals--The Variability of plants--Species which vary
little--Concluding remarks.

The foundation of the Darwi