BIRDS AT PLAY 67 



in the water a great deal when they are washing. 

 Every one has seen how even fat tame ducks 

 flap along the water, chase each other, and 

 dive with a noisy splash to come up with a 

 jerk some 'way off. And geese, which look 

 so much more solemn than ducks, have an 

 amusement which the ducks have not thought 

 of ; they turn somersaults in the water, and, 

 as they are not quick in their movements, even 

 in play, you get the ridiculous sight during 

 the performance of the clumsy bird on its 

 back in the water, waving its legs in the air. 



Fowls and turkeys do not seem to care 

 about playing as a rule, though little chickens 

 get up sham fights, or what look like them, 

 but perhaps they are only practising for real 

 fights later on ; but these birds have not the 

 sense of the water -fowl, and it is generally 

 the cleverer birds that are more inclined to 

 play, as they have the sense to keep them- 

 selves amused. 



Cockatoos are very clever birds, and I 

 have even seen them play with toys ; in the 

 big parrot aviary at the Zoo there are a lot 

 of the small grey-and-pink cockatoos called 

 in Australia " galahs," and now and then 



