THE PSYCHOLOGY OF ANIMAL PLAY. 299 



however, has convinced me of the fact. The bird 

 shows every symptom of disease and lies on the side or 

 stomach, breathing heavily. All this while his master 

 or some one else is in the room, but as soon as he finds 

 himself alone or has reason to think so he appears 

 quite normal and no longer ill. I believe that the ex- 

 planation of this is that the spoiled pet has noticed that 

 illness excites sympathy, and tender, pitying tones are 

 pleasant to him. Perhaps a slight indisposition or a 

 little pain caused the first complaint, and he has kept 

 it up for the sake of being petted. To cure this unfor- 

 tunate habit of deception it is only necessary to be a 

 little hard-hearted and not take any notice of the pre- 

 tended suffering, keeping him as cheerful and busy as 

 possible."* 



When we see deception used so effectively to serve 

 practical ends, examples of which are very common, 

 as every student of psychology can testify, it can hardly 

 be doubted that there is in all probability more con- 

 sciousness of shamming in play than we have any means 

 of demonstrating. 



But such a consciousness bears the closest relation 

 to artistic invention, as the following passage from Kon- 

 rad Lange will show: " If, then, aesthetic performance 

 of children, as well as of primitive peoples, can be 

 proved to have its origin in the play impulse, the next 

 question is whether the same thing is true among ani- 

 mals, and many observations point to an affirmative an- 

 swer. I will not dilate on this point, only mentioning in 

 passing that many zoologists believe that certain plays 

 of animals have the character of illusions. Dogs play- 

 ing with a bone, treat it like prey; cats will do the 



* K. Russ, Die sprechenden Papageien, p. 396. 



