EDITORIAL. 



Instinctive Traits in Animals. 



It is proposed to open these pages to all data bearing on the 

 mental habits or instincts of animals in the hope that those who 

 have opponunity to observe the habits of domestic and feral an- 

 imals will not hesitate to make a record of anything which in 

 any way bears on those rudimentary psychical manifestations 

 which may assist so materially in the difficult analysis of human 

 activities. 



One of the most serious drawbacks in the collection and 

 employment of such data is the tendency on our part to jjroject 

 into the mind of the animal such of our own mental experiences' 

 as would be likely to be associated with the observed conduct. 

 We are justly skeptical of the account which ascribes shame or 

 modesty to an animal without careful analysis and definition of 

 terms. 



Professor Morgan has done good service to Comparative 

 Psychology by his analysis of nomenclature which provides us 

 with terms suited to the simple or at least unresolvable mental 

 processes of animals. As an illustration of what we seek to 

 secure in this column we have added a somewhat miscellaneous 

 series of incidents, partly from a paper on the Mammals of 

 Minnesota now appearing as Bulletin VII, of the Geological 

 Survey of Minnesota. 



The Play Instinct. The tendency to play, i. e. to resort to 

 various sorts of activity which have no immediate or direct value 

 in the animal economy, but simply afford subjective pleasure, is 

 universal among mammals, at least at certain seasons. It is an 

 instinct very deeply seated and associated with periods of re- 

 dundant physical energy or nervous excitement. Thus it is 

 most highly developed in the young, at certain times of the day 

 and season, and at certain physiological acme. 



James says, " All simple active games are attempts to gain 

 the excitement yielded by certain primitive instincts, through 

 feigning that the occasions for their exercise are there. They 



