246 THE PLAY OF ANIMALS. 



Wallace, and Hudson. One of the passages already 

 cited from Wallace will serve as an example. He says 

 that when there is a surplus of energy the animal in- 

 dulges in all sorts of strange motions and vocal exer- 

 cises. This happens, it is true, most commonly at the 

 mating time, when the animal is in full possession of all 

 his powers, but may occur at any time when there is 

 superabundant vigour. 



I have already pointed out that such a conception 

 of hereditary instinct must to have any value be sup- 

 ported by the theory of the inheritance of acquired hab- 

 its. Even Darwin, who concedes the Lamarckian princi- 

 ple, has expressed himself in opposition to the view that 

 such phenomena may be regarded as expressing a gen- 

 eral state of exhilaration, with only a secondary appli- 

 cation to courtship.* He quotes from an article f and 

 from letters of Joh. von Fischer that a young man- 

 dril, when he saw himself for the first time in a mirror, 

 turned round after a while with his red back toward 

 the glass, just as many apes do when they see strangers 

 looking at them. (Brehm quotes an ancient descrip- 

 tion of a mandril by Gesner: " This animal was brought 

 to Augsburg with great wonder and exhibited there. 

 On his feet he had fingers like a man's, and when any 

 one looked at him he turned his back/') Other cases 

 are recorded where the animal apparently desired to 

 display what he considered his greatest beauties and 

 attractions, just as these monkeys show to the observer 

 their most highly coloured parts. 



How shall we account for these facts? Can they 

 be the effects of ordinary reflexes answering to any 



* Nature, November, 1876. 



f Der zoologische Garten, April, 1876. 



