178 THE PLAY OF ANIMALS. 



birds is often fed by the first, and he has seen young 

 kildees still in their first feathers bringing food to 

 young cuckoos.* 



If we now glance backward over the examples cited, 

 it will be seen that the majority of them refer to ab- 

 normal conditions, like those in which the weaver bird 

 displayed its skill. Most of the animals concerned had 

 lost their own young and were trying to find an outlet 

 for the fostering instincts already cited, and so a kind 

 of make-believe was substituted for the natural expres- 

 sion of it, hence the origin of play. This is not quite 

 the case when the animal adds strangers to its flour- 

 ishing family, but it may be questioned even then 

 whether the strange habit did not originate on some 

 occasion when the animal could not exert its normal 

 function. Yet I suppose those who regard the petting 

 of dogs by lonely women as play may call this so too. 



Play characteristics are, however, unmistakably pres- 

 ent when experimentation and the desire for ownership 

 are combined with the fostering instinct, and also when 

 half-grown birds assist in caring for the younger ones. 

 This latter seems to me the veritable play of young 

 creatures, in which, however, imitation is perhaps as 

 much involved as the nurturing instinct. It is certain- 

 ly so in human play of this kind.f 



7. Imitative Play. 



I have already stated, in the previous chapter, that 

 I subscribe to the views of those who, like Scheitlin, 

 Schneider, Strieker, Wundt, and James, regard the imi- 



* B. Altum, Der Vogel und sein Leben, p. 188. 

 f Perhaps the habit of many male birds of feeding: their be- 

 trothed should also be reckoned among the indubitable plays. 



