They lived, in short, just as they lived on their native bushes.
Communal life has its dangers.

When the hay is low in the manger donkeys grow quarrelsome, although usually so pacific.

My guests might well, in a season of dearth, have lost their tempers and begun to fight one another; but I was careful to keep the cages well provided with crickets, which were renewed twice a day.

If civil war broke out famine could not be urged in excuse.
At the outset matters did not go badly.

The company lived in peace, each Mantis pouncing upon and eating whatever came her way, without interfering with her neighbours.