260 THE PLAY OF ANIMALS. 



The siskin, crossbill, many kinds of pigeons, the lap- 

 wing, golden plover, and various other birds behave in a 

 similar way at their breeding time. I close this part 

 of the subject with Naumann's description of the snipe. 

 In the pairing time " the male flashes like lightning 

 from his place in the marsh, first on a slant and then 

 winding upward in a great spiral to the sky. He 

 goes so high that even on bright days only the strongest 

 eyes can follow him. At this great height he floats 

 about in circles and then shoots down perpendicularly 

 to the ground with wings widespread and motion- 

 less." * 



The marked similarity in the evolutions of such 

 various birds must have attracted the attention of any 

 reader of this collection of examples, which might be 

 enlarged indefinitely by the addition of numberless oth- 

 ers of a like character. Especially noticeable is the prac- 

 tice of that bold flight upward and then the rapid or slow 

 return; it is peculiar and yet so common that its expla- 

 nation seems a riddle difficult to solve. May there not 

 be something in the fact that such a movement shows the 

 under side of the bird's body to his mate? The kite, 

 however, is said to take her with him on his flight, and 

 in that case shows more of the upper part of his body. 

 Yet once granted the operation of the instinct, and we 

 may easily assume that the bird's gliding downward 

 through the air is a delightful movement play Avhich 

 must be about as much like our coasting on snow as 

 travelling on rubber tires is like the jolting of a dray 

 wagon. 



Among storks and preying birds the female gen- 

 erally participates in these flights. "It is a noble 



* Nauraann, loc. cit., viii, p. 327. 



