82 PROF. J. ARTHUR THOMSON ON 
as to human games. It is not essential, but it is an im- 
portant auxiliary. It is a pleasure to the animal as to us 
“to be a cause” ; it is a greater pleasure to be a more effective 
cause than someone else. 
I refer to races among wild horses and asses, lambs and 
kids; to various forms of tig and “follow my leader” in 
monkeys; to rival exhibitions of agility. Perhaps some 
forms of dance and song should be included here, when they 
occur unconnected with courtship. 
Even when they have some connection with courtship, it 
is difficult to decide whether the courtship led to the play, 
or whether a form of play was simply utilised in the court- 
ship. 
“ A striking example,’ Mr Hudson says, “is the Rupicola, 
or cock-of-the-rock, of tropical South America. A mossy 
level spot of earth surrounded by bushes is selected for a 
dancing-place, and kept well cleared of sticks and stones ; 
round this area the birds assemble, when a cock-bird, with 
vivid orange-scarlet crest and plumage, steps into it, and, 
with spreading wings and tail, begins a series of movements 
as if dancing a minuet; finally, carried away with excite- 
ment, he leaps and gyrates in the most astonishing manner, 
until, becoming exhausted, he retires, and another bird takes 
his place.” There are similiar displays among so-called 
savage peoples. 
Imitation—Twofold Relation. 
It seems indisputable that there is a strong imitative 
instinct in many animals as well as in man. Especially for 
gregarious animals, it is often of much importance to do 
instinctively what others are doing, ¢g., to take a simple 
case, for a rabbit to follow another’s white tail to the burrow 
without personally investigating the danger. The profound 
importance of imitation in human society has often been 
emphasised. 
Now, play seems to have a twofold relation to the imita- 
tive tendency—in the first, it may be that imitation gives 
form to play; in the second place, the play may be the means 
of acquiring aptness in necessary imitation. 
We all know that monkeys--whose name means mimic 
