THE PSYCHOLOGY OF ANIMAL PLAY. 297 



acter, since it employs an instinct when its actual aim 

 is wanting, but subjectively play is not always sham 

 occupation. It is safer, as we have seen, to assume that 

 the primary forms have none of this. Only when the 

 chase and fighting plays have been so frequently re- 

 peated that the animal recognises their pleasurable 

 quality, can we assume that even an intelligent creature 

 begins consciously to play a part. We may be quite 

 Bure of it, however, when he uses his weapons guardedly 

 and shows signs of friendship to his opponent, or when 

 he tosses a bit of wood in the air and catches it again. 

 As regards other kinds of play we are only justified 

 in thinking it probable that such a consciousness of 

 shamming is present; that monkeys, for instance, la- 

 bour under a kind of mock excitement when they in- 

 dulge their destructive impulses, and that the bird 

 tumbling about in the air has some object when he 

 seems on the point of falling helpless to the earth; that 

 the parrot that knocks on his cage and cries, " Come 

 in! " is consciously making believe; that the wooing bird 

 really plays the agreeable, and that his mate coquettes 

 intentionally, etc. 



But in case the making believe can not always be 

 established, it is useful to remember that actual decep- 

 tion is not rare among the higher animals. Any one 

 who has had much to do with dogs will not doubt 

 for a moment that this is true. I once saw one drop 

 a piece of bread that he would not eat, on the ground 

 and lie down on it, then with an air of great innocence 

 pretend to be looking for it. The Miillers tell of a 

 pointer that shammed sleep after he had licked all the 

 clabber out of a bowl.* Levaillant suspected his mon- 



* Thiere der Heimath, vol. i, p. 122. Alix, L'esprit de nos betes, 

 tells of a hunting dog that deceived his master by pointing at 



