THE PLAY OP ANIMALS. 95 



enough to reach the fire, and so burned it all piece by 

 piece."* 



We here see the playful experimentation, which at 

 first only serves the purpose of gaining control of the 

 bodily organs, become further and further developed. 

 No doubt, according to Darwin's theory of evolution, 

 primitive man acquired the ability to use fire by just 

 such experimentation. 



The destructive impulse is manifested even more 

 strongly by parrots and some other birds than by mon- 

 keys. Their winter quarters are often patched and 

 mended like little Roland's cloak in Uhland's story, 

 and the stronger the repairs the more eagerly do the 

 parrots attack them. Linden tells of the persistence 

 with which his cockatoos turned over the feeding 

 trough in their cage. "I have used every device to 

 make the troughs fast, winding fine wire about them 

 and to the iron bars, screwing them tightly from the 

 outside, etc., but my cockatoos know very well how to 

 unscrew, and get them loose sooner or later." " The 

 desire to do mischief is characteristic of the cockatoo," 

 says Brehm, " and the performances of these birds pass 

 belief. They gnaw through planks five or six centimetres 

 thick, as I can testify from my own experience, and 

 even iron plates a millimetre thick; they smash glass, 

 and try to penetrate masonry." Key relates of Caro- 

 lina parrots: " Their favourite mischief was throwing 

 their water-cups out of the cage after they had satis- 

 fied their thirst. Their delight was evident if the cups 

 broke." And Dickens says, with delightful exaggera- 

 tion, of a raven that died young: " It may have been 

 that he was too bright a genius to live long, or it may 



* Romanes, Animal Intelligence, p. 493. 



