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Life and Death and Life
生命、死亡、生命
Edgar M. Reilly, Jr.
小埃德加oM o賴利
Each moment of each day sees the death of some living thing. We know that each plant and animal，by natural tendency, produces far more seeds and eggs, and seedlings and young, than is necessary to maintain its population. This occurs because each species has an insecure hold on life. Moreover, death is necessary for the survival of life, and the death rate must just about equal the birth rate. If all the seeds and eggs created through the life processes survived and grew to adulthood, there could be no life able to continue through this overcrowding.
每一天，每一瞬間，都經(jīng)歷著某種生命的死亡。我們知道，出于天然本能，各種動植物生產(chǎn)出的卵、籽、幼畜、幼苗，遠遠超出了維持自身數(shù)量的需要。這是因為，任何一種物種對存活都沒有很大的把握。再者，死亡是生命存活必需的，死亡率必須與出生率大致持平。如果生命過程中所創(chuàng)造出來的全部卵、籽都存活至成年或成熟期，那就沒有一種生物能在這種過分擁擠的環(huán)境中繼續(xù)生存。
A pair of American robins nest in one backyard raising two brood of four each. Ten robins where there were two. These pair up and return to equally successful nestlings each year. No matter how much one likes robins，over 90 million birds in one yard at the end of the tenth year would be two much. And there would not be enough worms to feed them!
一對美洲知更鳥在一家后院筑巢孵下兩窩雛鳥，一窩4只，本來是兩只鳥，現(xiàn)在成了10只鳥。這些鳥在再成雙結對，每年冋來成功地孵育同樣多的雛鳥。無論誰多么喜歡知更鳥，10年后一個院子里的知更鳥的數(shù)量超過9千萬只，那也實在太多了。再說也不會有足夠的蟲子來養(yǎng)活它們。
