THE PLAY OF ANIMALS. 263 



gesturing, and strange positions. He twists his neck, 

 spreads his wings, and regularly dances; sometimes he 

 stoops repeatedly in rapid succession, spreads his wings, 

 and runs swiftly back and forth, expressing in every 

 possible way unbounded joyousness, but through it all 

 he is always graceful, always beautiful." * " The pea- 

 cock crane stands on a sand bank and begins to dance 

 at the slightest provocation, sometimes nothing more 

 than the fact that he has stepped on a hillock. The 

 dancer often springs as high as a metre from the ground, 

 spreads his wings and sets his feet down mincingly. 

 I do not know whether both sexes dance, but am in- 

 clined to think that it is only the male." Tame birds 

 of this kind welcome their friends in a similar way.f 



" Visitors to zoological gardens have probably no- 

 ticed that the cranes begin to dance when the music 

 strikes up." The one described above danced around 

 his favourite bull. Another made the most ludicrous 

 bounds before a mirror.J We can hardly doubt that 

 the various movements described were originally con- 

 nected with courtship, for they are such as characterize 

 that period in the whole world of birds, but they have 

 apparently become to the crane the expression of general 

 well-being. And since he is so intelligent we may 

 well suppose that he takes pleasure in going through 

 them — that is, that he is playing. 



The ostrich struts before his mate with wings un- 

 furled and lowered, sometimes runs very fast, making 



* See Naumann, ix, p. 362, who also regards these movements 

 as courtship phenomena ; so we have here a very clear illustration 

 of their production by association without that sexual excitement 

 which at first must have occasioned them. 



f Naumann gives a similar description of the stork, ix, p. 256. 



X Scheitlin, Thierseelenkunde, ii, p. 76. 

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