222 THE PLAY OF ANIMALS. 



kin, and many other birds have a great deal of curi- 

 xn osity.* 



Last, I may mention the vulture, which is noticeable 

 for this quality when young and will come near any one 

 who displays a new and attractive object. Brehm's 

 brother, in Spain, placed an owl in the vultures' cage, 

 and describes the curiosity with which the occupants 

 examined the newcomer. One young vulture ap- 

 proached the bird of night as it sat sulking in a corner, 

 looked him over and began an examination of his 

 feathers, an impertinence to which the owl responded 

 with a sharp blow from his claw. 



In most of these examples the animal is represented 

 as seeing a new object and trying to find out what sort 

 of thing it is — curiosity is expressed by approaching it, 

 looking it over, tasting, etc. All this leads us again 

 to the question whether animals may not have a kind of 

 aesthetic perception. The case is quite different with 

 these successive impressions from that of the coloured 

 feathers and stones which they collect, for it is an estab- 

 lished fact, as has been said, that among animals motion 

 is more provocative of attention than anything else. 

 Further, it is evident that imitative impulse is more 

 easily awakened by movement than by any attribute 

 of a body at rest. Accordingly, if that "inner imi- 

 tation" that characterizes aesthetic perception can ap- 

 pear anywhere in animal life it may be looked for as a 

 consequence of the observation of the motions of other 

 animals, preferably individuals of the same species. 

 Under the heading of imitative play it was shown that 

 such movements do produce external imitation; so it 



* Naturgeschichte der Vogel Deutschlands, iv, p. 16 ; ii, pp. 

 197, 203. 



