Seite - 90 - in The Origin of Species

90 ORIGIN OF SPECIES STRUGGLE FOR LIFE MOST SEVERE BETWEEN INDIVIDUALS AND VARIETIES OF THE SAME SPECIES As the species of the same genus usually have, though by- no means invariably, much similarity in habits and consti- tution, and always in structure, the struggle will generally be more severe between them, if they come into competition with each other, than between the species of distinct genera. We see this in the recent extension over parts of the United States of one species of swallow having caused the decrease of another species. The recent increase of the missel-thrush in parts of Scotland has caused the decrease of the song- thrush. How frequently we hear of one species of rat taking the place of another species under the most different cli- mates ! In Russia the small Asiatic cockroach has every- where driven before it its great congener. In Australia the imported hive-bee is rapidly exterminating the small, stingless native bee. One species of charlock has been known to supplant another species; and so in other cases. We can dimly see why the competition should be most severe between allied forms, which fill nearly the same place in the economy of nature ; but probably in no one case could we precisely say why one species has been victorious over another in the great battle of life. A corollary of the highest importance may be deduced from the foregoing remarks, namely, that the structure of every organic being is related, in the mose essential yet often hidden manner, to that of all the other organic beings, with M'^hich it comes into competition for food or residence, or from which it has to escape, or on which it preys. This is obvious in the structure of the teeth and talons of the tiger ; . and in that of the legs and claws of the parasite which clings to the hair on the tiger's body. But in the beautifully plumed seed of the dandelion, and in the flattened and fringed legs of the water-beetle, the relation seems at first confined to the elements of air and water. Yet the advantage of plumed seeds no doubt stands in the closest relation to the land being already thickly clothed with other plants ; so that the seeds may be widely distributed and fall on unoccupied ground. In the water-beetle, the structure of its legs, so well adapted