100 THE PLAY OF ANIMALS. 



deed^ also produce change of place to a considerable 

 extent, but with, them the movement has a specific aim. 

 Here I refer only to such plays as are concerned with 

 practice in locomotion as such, where the walking, run- 

 ning, leaping, climbing, flying, swimming of the ani- 

 mal finds its object in itself. As I said before, I pass 

 by the lower orders, though some of their actions, espe- 

 cially the swarming of insects, is very suggestive of 

 play. " With what joy in life insects swarm in the 

 sunshine! ^^ says Schiller; and Hudson is quite of 

 the same opinion w^hen he says: "I have spoken of 

 the firefly^s ^ pastime ' advisedly, for I have really never 

 been able to detect it doing anything in the evening be- 

 yond flitting aimlessly about, like house flies in a room, 

 hovering and revolving in company by the hour, appar- 

 ently for amusement." * It may well be that animals 

 quite low in the scale of being play, but who can prove 

 it ? " Ludunt in aquis pisces," says Julius Casar Bu- 

 lengerus. Ii it true that the fish tumble about so hap- 

 pily in their element ? Is not this supposition rather the 

 product of aesthetic sympathy — of the poetic delight 

 that we ourselves experience on beholding the light, 

 graceful movements of these delicate creatures? "In 

 very large aquariums or in its native waters the stickle- 

 back swims along rapidly and gracefully, often leaping 

 high out of the water, indulging in many gambols, but 

 careful in it all to keep watch of what goes before it — 

 namely, the young fry that forms its principle diet " 

 (Brehm). How are we to know in such a case that all the 

 movements do not serve the serious business of getting 

 food? According to Xoll, male and female carp chase 

 one another playfully and delight in sportive leaping. 



* The Naturalist in La Plata, p. 170. 



