128 THE PLAY OF ANIMALS. 



never resulted in a real fight. If Caspar, the badger, 

 lost his temper he drew off without turning round, and 

 got up snorting and shaking and with bristling hair, and 

 strutted about like an inflated turkeycock. After a few 

 moments his hair would smooth down, and with some 

 head-shaking and good-natured grunts the mad play 

 would begin again/^ 



Alix says that goats often play at hide and seek 

 with the village children.* Young foxes play this 

 game together, and so do squirrels. f The female mar- 

 ten carries on all sorts of gambolings with her young. 

 The little ones run after her, she leaps over them, 

 springs and whirls about like mad in every direction. J 

 Fraulein Minna Haass, of Rosterberg, had a tame 

 fawn named Lieschen that followed her mistress all 

 about, came at her call, and manifested a real attach- 

 ment for her. " The animal also cherished a friend- 

 ship with two huge mastiffs, and delighted to j^lay with 

 them. When ready for a game, the fawn would ap- 

 proach the dogs as they lay before the door, tap them 

 with her fore-foot, and take to flight. At this signal 

 a game followed exactly like the hide and seek played 

 by children, and a beautiful sight it was. If the dogs 

 were disinclined to play, Lieschen kept urging them till 

 they came." * 



Antelopes when followed keep the same distance 

 from a pursuer, as if they were mocking at him. Seals 

 chase one another vigorously in the water. Birds, too, 

 have a kind of play that is like chasing. Naumann says 



* Loc. cit., p. 173. 



f A. and K. Miiller. Wohnnnj2:en, Leben nnd Ei^fent. in der 

 hoheren Thierwelt. pp. 00 und 161. 



X A. and K, Miiller. Thiere der Heimath, vol. i. p. 364. 



* Buchner, Liebe und Liebesleben in der Thierwelt, p. 263. 



