132 THE PLAY OF ANIMALS. 



tail, which Gesner regards as the indicator of her moods. 

 The kittens hardly yet grasp its language, but they are 

 excited by the motion, their eyes take on expression, 

 and they prick up their ears. One and another clutch 

 awkwardly after the moving tail, one tries to clamber 

 on its mother's back and turns a somersault, another 

 has spied the movement of its mother's ears and busies 

 itself with them, while the fifth goes on placidly suck- 

 ing. The contented mother quietly submits to it all." 



I believe that all higher psychological accompani- 

 ments are wanting in the first play of young animals, 

 such as with a block or ball or anything of the sort, 

 but are necessarily developed by constant repetition 

 of the game. If a cat keeps running after such a ball, 

 in time a sort of role-consciousness comes to her, some- 

 thing like that which accompanies human actions that 

 are intentionally make-believe. This " doing ^s if," 

 or playing a part, will appear very important in our 

 later observations, and I think we may be sure that the 

 kitten possesses it in some degree at least after fre- 

 quently repeated experiments. A circumstance that I 

 have not yet mentioned seems to increase this probabil- 

 ity. When the ball stops rolling the kitten starts it up 

 again by a gentle tap with her paw, in order to begin 

 the game again. This seems like conscious self-decep- 

 tion, involving some of the most subtle psychological 

 elements of the pleasure that play gives. 



Dogs, too, are inclined to chase any moving object. 

 Brehm includes it among their characteristics. " They 

 all run after whatever goes quickly by them, be it man, 

 passing wagon, ball, stone, or what not, attempt to seize 

 and hold it, even when they know perfectly well that it 

 is a thing of no use to them." Every one knows the 

 ridiculous way in which a young dog will chase his own 



