96 THE PLAY OF ANIMALS. 



have been that he took some pernicious substance into 

 his bill, and thence into his maw, which is not improba- 

 ble, seeing that he new-pointed the greater part of the 

 garden wall by digging out the mortar, broke count- 

 less squares of glass by scraping away the putty all 

 round the frames, and tore up and swallowed, in splin- 

 ters, the greater part of a wooden staircase of six steps 

 and a landing." * Brehm's brother had a tame vulture 

 that often played with his master's fingers, taking them 

 in his beak without hurting them. Another bird of 

 the same kind, observed by Girtanner, tore the strong 

 padding of his cage in every direction, took the straw 

 out and played with it. He also clung to Girtanner's 

 watch chain and clothing, " pulled straw from my 

 hand, chuckling with delight. He took pleasure in 

 tearing or biting straw ropes, and came to me at once 

 when he saw that I was getting ready to make one." 

 Still another stroked his master (Baldenstein) with his 

 beak, or stuck it up his sleeve and uttered his contented 

 « Gich." 



Animals often amuse themselves by making noises. 

 According to Scheitlin, hares can readily be trained to 

 drum, because the motion is natural to them. " They 

 drum with unexampled rapidity, quicker than any 

 drummer boy, and even with a sort of passion." f This 

 enjoyment of noise forms part of their pleasure in 

 breaking and tearing. Experiments with apes espe- 

 cially illustrate this. Savage thinks that chimpanzees 

 collect on purpose to play, on those occasions when they 

 beat with rods on sounding pieces of wood \ This re- 

 mark, in which I at first had little faith, has been fully 



* Introduction to Barnaby Rudge. 



f Thierseelenkunde, ii, p. 117. 



% Romanes, Animal Intelligence, p. 476. 



