248 THE PLAY OF ANIMALS. 



their variety, and these arts, as we have seen, are then 

 extended to occasions which have no sexual meaning. 



Bnt what is onr justification for calling this play? 

 If the adult bird practises his skill in flight and song 

 out of season and simply from good spirits, that indeed 

 is play, and the gambols and dallyings of young im- 

 mature animals are as much play as their romping is. 



But, apart from these, it is common to speak of the 

 arts of actual courtship in the same way, and this fact 

 requires some explanation, though I confess I can not 

 find one that is entirely adequate. The fact seems to 

 be simply that the evolutions of birds on the wing, 

 their songs and dances, and their naive display of what 

 adornments they possess, impress us as playful, and we 

 have fallen into the habit of speaking about all animals 

 in the same way. But who knows that a mistaken 

 analogy has not led us far astray? When a skater sees 

 his beloved on the ice he displays all his skill before 

 her, and a good dancer does the same at a ball; a man in 

 love actually w^alks straighter and dresses better, and the 

 power of song has its uses, too, in human courtship. 

 When all this happens, we say the man is playing a 

 part, is trying to appear stronger, more skilful, better 

 looking, more sympathetic, etc., than he really is, and 

 even if all the conditions of our definition of play are 

 not fulfilled we must consider his conduct in that light. 

 But are we justified in extending the analogy to the 

 animal world on such grounds as these? Certainly 

 not, for apart from uncertainty of any far-reaching 

 correspondence between human and animal life in their 

 higher aspects, such a proceeding would involve the 

 fallacy of comparing phenomena that are not even 

 externally alike. To make them so, the amorous gen- 

 tleman should lift his voice at the sight of his lady. 



