T 



CHAPTER II 



THE WILD ANIMALS AT PLAY 



| HE watcher of wild animals never gets used to 

 the sight of their mirthless sport. In all other 

 respects animal play is entirely human. 

 A great deal of human play is serious desperately 

 serious on the football-field, and at the card-table, 

 as when a lonely player is trying to kill time with! 

 solitaire. 



I have watched a great ungainly hippopotamus 

 for hours trying to do the same solemn thing by cuff- 

 ing a croquet-ball back and forth from one end of 



his cage to the other. His keepers told me that with-j 

 out the plaything the poor caged giant would fret andj 

 worry himself to death. It was his game of solitaire.) 



