THE PLAY OF ANIMALS. 127 



ground, and made a pretended attack on one of the 

 ravens ; throwing himself about among the leaves, like a 

 fish on land, and pretending to snatch the birds, he 

 frightened his victims by the wildest, most dexterous 

 leaps, during which the white belly was as often upper- 

 most as the brown back. Then he fled back to the gut- 

 ter, from which only his fore legs protruded ; or he took 

 up his position on the street, awaiting the attack of 

 the raven which followed his own, and evidently with 

 as little serious intent. The raven, with head out- 

 stretched, ran after the alert creature, but with small 

 success, for he was not inclined to test his agil- 

 ity seriously against the powerful beak of one or per- 

 haps both of the birds. The game lasted with many 

 variations on both sides for about ten minutes, when it 

 was interrupted by my dog, and the ravens flew away.* 

 Beckmann very beautifully describes the play of a 

 badger. " His only playmate was an exceedingly clever 

 and sensible dog, which I had accustomed from its 

 youth to live with all sorts of wild animals. Together 

 they went through a series of gymnastic exercises on 

 pleasant afternoons, and their four-footed friends came 

 from far and near to witness the performance. The 

 essentials of the game were that the badger, roaring 

 and shaking his head like a wild boar, should charge 

 upon the dog, as it stood about fifteen paces off, and 

 strike him in the side with its head; the dog, leaping 

 dexterously entirely over the badger, awaited a second 

 and third attack, and then made his antagonist chase 

 him all round the garden. If the badger managed to 

 snap the dog's hind quarters an angry tussle ensued, but 



* Miiller, Thiere der Heimath, i, p. 351. See also Hudson, loe. 

 cit., p. 385. 



