So 
has repudiated the orphans of a killed comrade, and, by her side, 
another female who adopts anyone’s orphans, and now paddles 
surrounded by fifty or sixty youngsters, whom she conducts and 
cares for as if they all were her own breed. Side by side with 
the penguins, which steal one another’s eggs, you have the dotterels, 
whose family relations are so ‘charming and touching’ that even 
passionate hunters recoil from shooting a female surrounded by 
her young ones ; or the eider-ducks, among which (like the velvet- 
ducks, or the coroyas of the Savannahs) several females hatch 
together in the same nest ; or the lums, which sit in turn upon a 
common covey.”—{Nineteenth Century, vol. xxviii., ft. 700.) 
Although the competition which is supposed to take 
place in nature is an important item in all its different 
manifestations in determining the stress of the struggle 
for existence, it is above all things important that the 
advocate of Natural Selection should establish the truth 
of his assertion that the individuals of the same species 
do compete and do not co-operate : for on that condition 
only could we be assured of the survival of the fittest. 
In considering the evidence for the fact of co-operation, 
as opposed to competition, among the members of the 
same species, we may remark that a great portion of 
the lives of many animals is spent either in the domestic 
circle or in the common life of the flock and of the herd : 
and a very little experience will enable us to come to 
the conclusion that mutual help, rather than supreme 
selfishness, is the law of their life. 
First let us take some illustrations of parental care. 
A writer in Chambers' Journal says :— 
“ The assertion that ‘ self-preservation is the first law of nature,’ 
is a cruel libel upon a large section of animal creation. To preserve 
and safeguard their offspring, many, if not most, creatures will risk 
and even sacrifice their lives. The more powerful animals might 
naturally be expected to do battle for their young ; but it is surpris 
ing to find that the weakest and most timorous defy strength and 
forego fear on account of their progeny. That beings which flee 
from man and other despots, when the preservation of self only is 
concerned, should disregard personal danger, and fight till death