animals' playthings. 233 



The mottnots, birds of Central and South America, not satisfied 

 with having long decorative tail feathers, proceed to embellish fur- 

 ther, and when full grown pull off the barbs from a portion of each 

 of these feathers, leaving a rounded disk at the tip. Even birds 

 which have been reared from the nest carry out this habit through 

 inheritance. The males of certain weaver birds — the widow finch- 

 es — have very elegant tails, much longer than their bodies. And 

 most gracefully do they carry them, flying through thick foliage 

 without injuring their long trains in the least. 



In some birds, as in our meadow lark and vesper sparrow, the 

 central feathers of the tail are protectively colored, and when the 

 bird is at rest help to conceal it from observation. The minute 

 these birds take wing, the pure white outer feathers flash out con- 

 spicuously. It is said these are like the " cotton tail " of the rab- 

 bit — a signal to its young, or to other members of the flock, to fol- 

 low and escape, the older and more experienced birds being stron- 

 ger, and, therefore, usually in the lead. 



The tinamous of South America has no tail at all. — C. IVi'l/iaifi 

 Beebe, in ISew York Evening Post. 



Animals' Playthings. 



" Animals' games and playthings form a great division of the In' 

 stitute's research," said a member of the Paris Institute of Zoolo- 

 gy. " It is a great subject. Within the past year two serious books 

 have been written on it, one in French and one in German. Pesch- 

 uel-L/OSche tells of a tame female monkey who constructed a swing 

 for herself, measuring the rope and changing its length several 

 times before it suited her. The observer, Fr. Ellendorf, had a lit- 

 tle black-headed monkey who amused himself by striking safety 

 matches on the edge of the box. The same naturalist, Losche, tells 

 how young baboons make playthings of pieces of wood of peculiar 

 shape, and when going to bed at night, like children, they go to 

 sleep holding them in their arms. 



"Isabella," one of the most intelligent of these baboons," he 

 says, "thus cherished for a long time a sardine box, which she had 

 polished until if shone like silver, and Pavy, her brother, clung to 

 a curved piece of wood with which he played tipcat. Both puppies 

 and kittens put in their time wnth playthings, which the former, 

 at least, hide carefully away at night." — Paris Lettei , in Washing- 

 ion Star. 



