56 ADVENTURES AMONG BIRDS 



but play for a motive, the remarkable thing about it 

 was that it was made to fit so admirably into the 

 serious business which brought them together at that 

 spot. They came, one by one, from all over the 

 plain, at noon on a hot thirsty day, solely for re- 

 freshment, yet every bird on arrival instantly fell 

 into the humour of the moment and took his ap- 

 pointed part and place in the game. It struck me at 

 the time as a very strange thing, for well as I knew 

 the bird, I had never witnessed an act precisely like 

 this before. Yet it does not stand alone, except in 

 form ; any day and every day we may see acts in 

 other species of social disposition or habits, which are 

 undoubtedly inspired by a similar spirit. Little sham 

 quarrels and flights and chases ; we see them squaring 

 up to one another with threatening gestures and 

 language ; playing little practical jokes too, as when 

 one approaches another in a friendly way and subtly 

 watches him to snatch a morsel from his beak ; or 

 when another pretends to have found something 

 exceptionally good and makes a great fuss about it to 

 deceive a comrade, and when the other carries the 

 joke further by capturing and carrying off the bit of 

 dry stick or whatever it is, and pretending to feast 

 on it with great satisfaction. These and a hundred 

 other little playful acts of the kind are common 

 enough and mingle with and are like a part of the 

 food-getting or other business of the moment. 



The strangeness of the plover's performance was 

 due to the singular form which play in them almost 



