240 THE MINDS AND MANNERS 



of health and good living. A calf will choose a long open 

 course, usually up and down a gentle slope, and for two hundred 

 feet or more race madly to and fro for a dozen laps, with tail 

 stiflly and very absurdly held aloft. Of course men and beasts 

 all pause to look at such performances, and at the finish the 

 panting and perspiring calf halts and gazes about with a con- 

 scious air of pride. All this is deliberate "showing off," just 

 such as small boys frequently engage in. 



Elk fawns, and more rarely deer fawns, also occasionally 

 indulge in similar performances. Often an adult female 

 deer develops the same trait. One of our female Eld's deer 

 annually engages in a series of spring runs. We have seen 

 her race the full length of her corral, up and down, over a two 

 hundred foot course, at really break-neck speed, and keep it up 

 until her tongue hung out. 



Years ago, in the golden days, I was so lucky as to see 

 several times wonderful dances of fiocks of saras cranes on the 

 low sandy islets in the River Jumna, northern India, just 

 below Etawah. It was like this: While the birds are idly 

 stepping about, apropos of nothing at all, one suddenly flaps 

 his long wings several times in succession, another jumps 

 straight up in the air for a yard or so, and presto! with one 

 accord the whole flock is galvanized into action. They throw 

 aside their dignity, and real fun begins. Some stand still, 

 heads high up, and flap their wings many times. Others leap 

 in the air, straight up and down, one jump after another, as 

 high as they can go. Others run about bobbing and bowing, 

 and elaborately courtesjdng to each other with half opened 

 wings, breasts low down and their tails high in the air, cutting 

 very ridiculous figures. 



In springtime in the Zoological Park we often see similar 

 exhibitions of crane play in our large crane paddock. A par- 

 ticularly joyous bird takes a fit of running with spread wings, 

 to and fro, many times over, and usually one bird thus per- 

 forming inspires another, probably of his own kind, to join in 



