102 THE PLAY OF ANIMALS. 



gard play as at first an instinct, producing activity 

 without serious motive. There can be no question that 

 they often seem to play as they tumble about, and Ko- 

 manes himself can offe-r no more convincing proof than 

 that. The intelligence of fish is not, however, so in- 

 ferior as is commonly supposed, and the probability that 

 they have movement plays becomes apparent from the 

 following observation of Beneke. He studied the hab- 

 its of Macropods thoroughly, and made a report on 

 them in Brehm^s Thierleben, including a detailed ac- 

 count of the courtship of these fish: " The male usual- 

 ly, though not invariably, keeps to one particular fe- 

 male. On approaching her he extends his tail and fins, 

 and grows perceptibly darker, while the female either 

 remains perpendicular, all her fins closely compressed, 

 and circles slowly round, or swims as the male does, 

 though in the opposite direction. Then they turn slow- 

 ly in circles together, the tail of one in front of the 

 other's head, both with stiffly distended fins. If they 

 become greatly excited during the play, the male trem- 

 bles while he spreads himself, very much as a cock does 

 when he struts around the hens, and the female often 

 imitates this." When his male fish died Beneke secured 

 another pair, and he says that the two females played 

 together in the same way. The playful character of 

 this can hardly be questioned, and, having admitted one 

 case, we can not deny that much of the tumbling about 

 in the water may really be playful. Of birds, however, 

 we can speak with greater certainty. There are, it is 

 true, many phenomena which have the appearance of 

 play, but really belong to the search for food. Nothing, 

 for instance, seems freer, lighter, or more aimless than 

 the flight of swallows in spring, and yet we know that 

 the impulse to satisfy their hunger, and not sportiveness, 



