Before man
inhabited India or Africa, some cause must have checked the continued
increase of the existing elephant. A highly capable judge, Dr. Falconer,
believes that it is chiefly insects which, from incessantly harassing and
weakening the elephant in India, check its increase; and this was Bruce's
conclusion with respect to the African elephant in Abyssinia. It is
certain that insects and blood-sucking bats determine the existence of the
larger naturalised quadrupeds in several parts of South America.
We see in many cases in the more recent tertiary formations that rarity
precedes extinction; and we know that this has been the progress of events
with those animals which have been exterminated, either locally or wholly,
through man's agency. I may repeat what I published in 1845, namely, that
to admit that species generally become rare before they become extinct--to
feel no surprise at the rarity of a species, and yet to marvel greatly when
the species ceases to exist, is much the same as to admit that sickness in
the individual is the forerunner of death--to feel no surprise at sickness,
but, when the sick man dies, to wonder and to suspect that he died by some
deed of violence.
The theory of natural selection is grounded on the belief that each new
variety and ultimately each new species, is produced and maintained by
having some advantage over those with which it comes into competition; and
the consequent extinction of less-favoured forms almost inevitably follows.
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