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Editorial 



Animal Amusements 



The other day a ship came into the New York Harbor bringing 

 to our shores, among other animals thirteen baby elephants 

 and two baby hippos. They were a homesick, miserable lot as 

 would any babies be taken away from their mothers, and they 

 cried especially at night. Mr. Jurgen Johannsen who owned 

 them was sympathetic and rigged up nursing bottles to pacify 

 them and they soon looked upon him as a real friend. At Ham- 

 burg where they changed ships they took on eight "educated" 

 dogs and to amuse the big babies the dogs were allowed to frolic 

 among them and they were so amused by the antics of the dogs that 

 when night came they were ready to go to sleep. 



The most interesting animal book that we have seen for many 

 a long day, Dr. Hornaday's "The Minds and Manners of Wild 

 Animals ' ' gives a chapter on animal play. From our own experience 

 we know that animals need amusement — many of them are 

 full of mischief just for the fun of it. I often see one of our chip- 

 munks jump at a robin on the lawn just to see him hop. This 

 is an interesting line for investigation. Why should not the 

 Nature-Study Review publish next year a symposium on animal 

 amusements consisting of notes made in the field this Summer 

 where so many of us are camping or hiking, with our eyes open 

 for this phase of animal mentality. 



Dr. Hornaday declares with justice: "On the whole, the play 

 of wild animals is a large field and no writer will exhaust it with 

 one chapter. Very sincerely do we wish that at least one of the 

 many romance writers who are so industriously inventing wild- 

 animal blood-and-thunder stories would do more work with his 

 eyes and less with his imagination." 



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