CHAPTER II 



THE WILD ANIMALS AT PLAY 



THE 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- 

 out the plaything the poor caged giant would fret and 

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



