THE PLAY OF ANIMALS. 



Cockatoos, ring parrots, and some other varieties 

 also learn to speak readily, the latter having been 

 known to acquire as many as a hundred words in vari- 

 ous languages, and articulate them perfectly. The 

 cockatoo is a very sociable bird, and indulges in much 

 gesticulation and genuflection while speaking. " Nod- 

 ding the head and making the drollest bows that shake 

 his bright crest, he turns and clambers about and laughs 

 with real appreciation of the joke when he mimics the 

 movements, words, or cries of another."* 



In concluding this series of examples I wish to in- 

 clude a few illustrating more directly the social aspect 

 of imitation. I remember that Spencer says it is 

 "sympathy" that induces a whole flock of birds to 

 rise when one flies off, and I think that such effects of 

 imitation on masses may at times be playful as well. 

 The following interesting remark of James's will serve 

 to illustrate what I mean: " There is another sort of 

 human play, into which higher aesthetic feelings enter. 

 I refer to the love of festivities, ceremonies, and or- 

 deals, etc., which seems to be universal in our species. 

 The lowest savages have their dances more or less for- 

 mally conducted. The various religions have their sol- 

 emn rites and exercises, and civic and military powers 

 symbolize their grandeur by processions and celebrations 

 of divers sorts. We have our operas and parties and 

 masquerades. An element common to all these cere- 

 monial games, as they are called, is the excitement of 

 concerted action, as one of an organized crowd. The 

 same acts, performed with a crowd, seem to mean vastly 

 more than when performed alone. A walk with the 

 people on a holiday afternoon, an excursion to drink 



* K. Russ, Die sprechenden Papageien, p. 117. 



