318 THE EVOLUTION OF ANIMAL BEHAVIOUR 
“Birds are more subject to this universal joyous instinct 
than mammals, and there are times when some species are 
constantly overflowing with it; and as they are so much freer 
than mammals, more buoyant and graceful in action, more 
loquacious, and have voices so much finer, their gladness 
shows itself in a greater variety of ways, with more regular 
and beautiful motions, and with melody. But every species 
or group of species has its own inherited form or style of 
performance ; and however rude and irregular this may be, 
as in the case of the pretended stampedes and fights of wild 
cattle, that is the form in which the feeling will always be 
expressed.” 
That all this, which Mr. Hudson so graphically describes, 
belongs to the psychological aspect of animal behaviour and 
is directly prompted by conative tendencies whose immediate 
end is conscious satisfaction, the mere joy of unrestrained and 
healthy activity, may be freely admitted, without denying that 
all this exuberant psychical life owes its evolution to the fact 
that it is in consonance with and supplemental to biological 
ends which secure survival. It is with animals as it is with 
man ; play is the preparation for earnest. As I have else- 
where said,* what our national games have done for the 
English race it is difficult to overestimate. They train us to 
use our bodies and expend our energies to the best advantage. 
An old soldier, watching a football match, said, ‘“‘ That’s the 
training for our future soldiers and sailors.” The playing 
fields are the finest school of organized co-operation in the 
world. But, apart from compulsion, a boy will not enter into 
the game with that zest through which alone it acquires real 
value for training, unless there be an immediate psychological 
end in the satisfaction he derives. And with animals practice 
and preparation for the business of life could not occur if the 
ultimate biological purpose of it all were not supplemented by 
the enjoyment it brings for its own sake. 
But in animal play, as indeed in that of human youth, we 
are perhaps a little apt, in laying stress on the bodily skill and 
* « Psychology for Teachers,” p. 70. 
