is' 



272 THE PLAY OF ANIMALS. 



herited by the individual — similar, cum grano sails, to 

 the fine arts of savages. For by outgrowing instinct 

 they reach, through teaching and imitation, a certain 

 degree of development to which they remain constant so 

 long as the conditions remain constant, but would at 

 once fall back to the level of hereditary instinct were the 

 individuals to lose their model. The more important the 

 part play by imitation, the more probability of a playful 

 expression of the activity in question.* 



I again pass over the lower orders, although they 

 offer much that is of the greatest interest. There is 

 very little that deserves to be called vocal art in the 

 courtship of mammals; most of them confine their 

 acoustic demonstrations to a passionate howl, roar, 

 shriek, or growl, or to the simple call. The perform- 

 ance of howling apes, however, is a notable exception, 

 for they collect in companies and frequently give con- 

 certs that last for hours. Hensel says: "In summer, 

 when the beams of the morning sun have dispelled the 

 night mists, the howling apes leave the shelter of the 

 thickly leaved trees to which they have clung all night. 

 After satisfying their hunger they have time before the 

 heat of the day to indulge in social pleasures which, as 

 befits animals so serious, are free from the unseemliness 

 that characterizes those of many of their relations. 

 They now repair to the shelter of some gigantic mon- 

 arch of the forest whose limbs offer facilities for walk- 

 ing exercises. The head of the family appropriates one 



* See Weismann in the Deutschen Rundschau, October, 1889, 

 p. 63 : "A young finch, brought up alone, sings untaught the note 

 of his kind! but never so well as those that have had the advantage 

 of parental example. He, too, is governed by a tradition; the 

 essentials only of the finch's song are inherent in his organism, are 

 born in him." 



