90 THE PLAY OF ANIMALS. 



water carefully, for when he is playing at washing 

 things he wants to dip only his paws in the water, 

 not at all liking to stand in it up to his neck. After 

 satisfying himself on this point, he steps with evident 

 delight into the wet element and feels about on the bot- 

 tom for something to wash. An old pot handle, a bit of 

 porcelain, a snail shell, are favourite objects for his pur- 

 pose and are used over and over again. Now he spies an 

 old bottle in the distance which appears to be greatly in 

 need of washing. He reaches for it, but his chain is too 

 short, so without hesitation he lies down as a monkey 

 would do, gaining in that way the length of his body, 

 and rolls the bottle toward him with his outstretched 

 hind foot. The next moment we see him up on his 

 hind legs, slowly waddling back to the water, the big 

 bottle clasped in his fore paws and strained against his 

 breast. If he is disturbed in his attempt he behaves 

 like a self-willed, spoiled child, throwing himself on 

 his back and clinging with all fours so tightly to his 

 beloved bottle that he can be lifted by it. When he 

 at last becomes tired of his work in the water, he fishes 

 his plaything out, sits cross-legged and rocks to and 

 fro, constantly fingering and boring into the narrow 

 neck of the bottle." 



This so-called washing seems to be characteristic of 

 various kinds of bears as well. I myself have observed 

 one instance, in the case of a polar bear that rolled an 

 iron pot to and fro in his bath tub, taking it at last to a 

 little trough of running water and there washing the in- 

 destructible vessel in earnest. It was very funny to see 

 the bear seize it firmly with his fore paws and go through 

 the motions of a washwoman scrubbing on a board. 

 When the bath was freshly cemented in this bear house 

 the animals were kept out of it for a day after the work 



