12G THE PLAY OF ANIMALS. 



playful of animals, with the exception of the monkey. 

 An Englishman told him the following incident: He 

 was once compelled to spend the night in the open air 

 in the pampas of La Plata. It was a bright moonlight 

 night, and at about nine o'clock he saw four pumas 

 approaching, two adult animals and two half-grown 

 young ones. Knowing that these animals never attack 

 men, he quietly watched them. After a while they 

 came very near him as they chased one another and 

 played at hide and seek like kittens; and finally they 

 jumped directly over the motionless man several times. 

 The mother cat will run forward some distance and call 

 the little ones after her. P. Kropotkine had a cat that 

 played regular hide and seek with him.* Monkeys do 

 the same, both on the ground and among the branches. 



Young wolves play just as dogs do, and it is at 

 least in part a chase that Brehm describes of the 

 weasel: " Until these charming little creatures are quite 

 grown they play often during the day with their par- 

 ents, and it is a sight as strange as it is beautiful to see 

 a company of them collected in a meadow on a bright 

 day. The play goes merrily on. From this or that 

 hole a little head pops out and small bright eyes glance 

 from side to side. Everything being quiet and safe, one 

 after another comes out of the ground to the fresh 

 grass. The brothers and sisters tease one another, romp 

 and chase, and so cultivate the agility that is their 

 natural inheritance." 



The head forester Nordlinger relates the following 

 of two ravens and a weasel: The latter had taken refuge 

 in a street gutter. As quick as lightning he darted out, 

 rustled through the dry leaves that partly covered the 



* Revue scientifique, August 9, 1884. 



