NATURAL HISTORY STUDIES 



but he always takes great care that they do not fall 

 upon himself. Thus, he will pull a chair towards 

 him till it is almost overbalanced ; then he intently 

 fixes his eyes on the top bar of the back, and, as he 

 sees it coming over his way, darts from underneath, 

 and watches the fall with great delight ; and similarly 

 with heavier things. There is a washhand-stand, 

 for example, which he has upset several times, 

 and always without hurting himself. One day he 

 played for a long time with a hearth-brush, learning 

 to unscrew the handle and, what was much more 

 difficult, putting it together again. When he had 

 become by practice tolerably perfect in screwing 

 and unscrewing, he gave it up and took to some 

 other amusement." 



Sham Hunt and Sham Fight 



Passing from gambol and experiment to somewhat 

 subtler forms of play, we find that a number of 

 animal games may be summed up under the title 

 "sham hunt." Into this there seems to enter a 

 certain amount of " make-believe." The booty 

 may be real, as when the cat plays with the mouse, 

 or both the booty and the chase may be fictitious. 

 The sham booty may be living, as when the dog 

 plays with a beetle ; or, more commonly, not living, 

 as when the kitten plays with a ball of twine. 



Another type of play is the sham fight, which we 

 see so often between puppies or kittens. It has been 

 described among lions, tigers, hysenas, wolves, 

 foxes, bears, and other carnivores ; among lambs, 

 kids, calves, foals, and other ungulates ; it is also 



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