134 THE PLAY OF ANIMALS. 



— a black boot has a particular fascination for the rat 

 terrier. It is a pretty sight to see one of them push 

 back a lady's skirt with his paw to find her foot and 

 then pounce upon it eagerly, never biting to hurt her, 

 however — another proof of the consciousness of make- 

 believe. Examples of such play with lifeless objects 

 are not abundant in the literature of the subject that 

 I am acquainted with. However, I am able to cite 

 a few. 



Monkeys like to play with balls and other moving 

 objects,* and, according to Eengger, young jaguars do 

 the same, and often play for hours at a time with bits 

 of paper, oranges, or wooden balls, f Captive bears, too, 

 play with blocks and balls. Brehm says that young 

 ocelots "taken young and with care, are very tame; 

 they romp together like kittens, playing with a bit of 

 paper, a small orange, and such objects "; and Hudson 

 says of the puma that at heart it is always a kitten, tak- 

 ing unmeasured delight in its frolics, and when, as often 

 happens, one lives alone in the desert, it will amuse 

 itself by the hour fighting mock battles or playing at 

 hide and seek with imaginary companions, lying in wait 

 and putting all its wonderful strategy in practice to cap- 

 ture a passing butterfly. A tame puma that Hudson 

 knew was delighted when a string or handkerchief was 

 waved before him, and when one person was tired play- 

 ing with him he was ready for a game with the 

 next comer.t Many observers tell us of cranes: these 

 remarkable and intelligent birds throw stones and bits 



* Scheitlin, Thierseelenkunde, ii, p. 125. Darwin, Descent of 

 Man, in loc. 



f S&ugethiere von Paraguay, pp. 173, 200, 211. 

 X The Naturalist in La Plata, p. 40. 



