THE PLAY OF ANIMALS. I35 



of mud in the air, as dogs do, and try to catch them 

 as they fall.* 



4. Fighting Plays. 

 Such plays are usually to be regarded, in my opin- 

 ion, as preparatory for the struggle for the female, 

 though there are other reasons for the teasing and tus- 

 sling of young animals. That pleasure in possessing 

 power that appears in experimentation is certainly pres- 

 ent here as well, and such fights serve also as practice for 

 later battles other than those of courtship. Most ani- 

 mals, and especially carnivorous ones, are as pugnacious 

 in conducting their games together as they are over ac- 

 tual prey, for their chasing games very easily lead to 

 fights. But when we reflect that the defenceless crea- 

 tures, whose only safety is in flight, fight among them- 

 selves just as much as the beasts of prey do, we seem 

 to be shut up to the view that the principal use for 

 playful contests is preparation for the later struggle for 

 the female. The close connection between cruelty and 

 pugnacity on the one hand, and sexual excitement on 

 the other, is a fact confirmatory of this view. It is well 

 known that there is a kind of voluptuous pleasure in 

 cruelty. Preyer has published cases of perverted sexual 

 feeling f where the highest degree of excitement was 

 expressed by cruelty to smaller animals; and among 

 some animals — hares, for instance — it is common for the 

 female to be seriously abused in the act -of pairing. 

 Schaeffer says: 'J " Fighting and the impulse to kill are 



* Scheitlin, Thierseelenkunde, i, 74. Naumann, Naturge- 

 schichte der Vogel Deutschlands, ix, pp. 362, 393. 



f Mtinchen. med. Wochenschrift, 1890, No. 23. 



X Zeitschrift ftir Psychol, und Physiol, d. Sinnesorgane, vol. ii 

 (1891), p. 128. 

 11 



