96 THE INFANCY OF ANIMALS 



occupies the position vacated by number one ; each of 

 them then faces round ready to continue the fray, the 

 changes of position becoming quite rapid. 



Dr. C. W. Andrews has similarly recorded the play of 

 young frigate-birds observed by him on Christmas Island. 

 " Groups of them," he says, " could often be seen near 

 the coast stooping to the water, one after the other, to 

 pick up leaves and other floating objects, and then dropping 

 them, apparently practising the method by which their 

 parents obtain their food, which consists of surface-fish 

 and cephalopods." 



I myself have seen mallard " flappers " at play. The 

 antics these indulged in were most interesting. Now 

 they would race along the water, flapping their wings 

 violently the while, and now they would suddenly take 

 short dives ; and these diversions would be varied by 

 much bathing, sending the water all around in showers. 



It is significant to note that, so far, wherever play 

 among young birds has been observed, the parents have 

 been absent, generally and perhaps always, on food 

 forages. Thus, then, we may assume that play is an 

 instinctive activity. Among the mammals, as we have 

 already pointed out, play seems always to reproduce 

 just those activities which later on are matters of life 

 and death. Among the birds one cannot, so far, discover 

 so close a relationship between the unreal foreshadowing 

 of what is to be, and its accomplishment. The frigate 

 bird would certainly seem to conform to this rule, but 

 what are we to say of the play of the eaglet and that 

 of the little sedge-warblers ? Here is a field which badly 

 needs cultivation. Perchance some reader of these pages 

 may be tempted to take up the matter. 



