Commentary Whenever I watch animals interact, I think of human analogies. This is not because I believe that the theory of evolution has much, or indeed anything at all, to teach us about the conduct of our lives, but because such analogies rise spontaneously to my mind. The other day, for example, I observed a group of blackbirds attacking another of their species with what seemed to me vicious spite, and I was reminded of the way in which the French literati suddenly turned recently on one of their number who had hitherto been a respected, even mildly celebrated, member of their confraternity, outdoing each other in their reprehension of him. But while I could not understand why the blackbirds had taken against their fellow-avian, and were clearly trying to peck him to death, I understood the feeling of the literati against their fellow-writer: but still the spectacle of their …