THE ANIMAL SENSE OF HUMOUR 



So many of the higher forms of human pleasure 

 are shared by the other vertebrates, that it seems 

 difficult to deny positively the faculty for any of 

 the simple mental and aesthetic pleasures to animal 

 understanding. Colour and music, scents and sounds, 

 and the various ' cosmetics ' of a simple toilet, are 

 all within the scope of their enjoyment ; and 

 in many forms of play, sometimes of a rather 

 elaborate nature, animals find a pleasure similar to 

 that which the same amusements arouse in mankind. 

 There are no limits to their enjoyment of that kind 

 of ' fun ' which romps and make-believes of all sorts, 

 especially mock-fighting and serio-comic farce, excite 

 in their minds. But the sense of fun, which may be 

 defined as the merriment which takes form in play, 

 is, we think, in some few animals, capable of a 

 further development. That refined sense of the in- 

 congruous or the odd, which we call ' humour,' is 

 probably possessed in a large degree by a few 



68 



