14G THE PLAY OP ANIMALS. 



Friendly dogs often keep up their playful fights to 

 an old age without ever being in the least angry; and 

 among the cattle on Alpine pastures, where the greatest 

 freedom is allowed them, these playful contests are fre- 

 quent. " The Alpine cows/"' says Scheitlin, " learn to 

 know their proper food more quickly, are more good- 

 natured, and take more pleasure in life than others. 

 They fight valiantly, both in play and in earnest; with 

 all their amiability and fondness for one another, they 

 gore and push terribly, yet not in anger or bad temper, 

 but like a lot of boys that fight to exercise their mus- 

 cles. They will stand for a long time with heads low- 

 ered and horns interlocked, as if they would never sepa- 

 rate. They do not look one another in the eye, as men 

 do, when fighting; their eyes are on the ground, their 

 whole mind is concentrated on the push. When one 

 succeeds in shoving the other back, neither seems to 

 care; the loser is not in the least ashamed, nor does the 

 victor show any pride or pleasure. Some of them are 

 very pugnacious, and display great courage and persist- 

 ence." * 



Females are thus seen to display the eagerness for 

 combat that is in general so much more the character- 

 istic of the male; just as among ourselves, masculine 

 instincts often appear in women. Some female cats are 

 twice as aggressive and bloodthirsty in their breeding 

 time as any male, and there are some kinds of birds 

 whose females imitate the song of the males and mingle 

 in their battles, f 



* Scheitlin, Thierseelenkiinde, ii, p. 201. 



•f- The cows that undertake to lead and rule the herd will pome- 

 times fififht to the death. Their leadership is like that of the h}^^ 

 in a wild state. See Tschudi, Das Thierleben der Alpenwelt, 1890, 

 p. 542. 



