280 THE FEELINGS AND EMOTIONS 
I have elsewhere* expressed my opinion that, though 
animals may behave in ways which may tend to mislead us, 
they do not act with intent to deceive. A dog is described f 
as “showing a deliberate design of deceiving” because he 
hobbled about the room as if lame and suffering from pain 
in his foot. But may not this be simply due to the fact that 
chance experience had led to a situation through which a 
hobbling gait had acquired the meaning of more petting 
and attention than usual? To behave with deceit as a 
deliberate motive implies the idea that the action will be 
interpreted as having a significance different from that which 
it really has. It is only possible on the ideational plane of 
mental development. It implies, too, from the ethical stand- 
point, a conscious departure from the standard of truth. The 
black that is acted has conscious reference and relation to the 
white that is not black. Few, however, will credit animals 
with deceit of this fully conscious and deliberate kind. Like 
the fibs of little children, the apparent deceit of animals is 
probably merely behaviour which has been associated in 
experience with pleasant results. 
The case of shamming sickness, quoted from K. Russ, 
is thus interpreted by Professor Groos.t And yet he adds, 
‘““When we see deception used so effectively to serve practical 
ends, examples of which are very common, it can hardly be 
doubted that there is in all probability more consciousness of 
shamming in play than we have any means of demonstrating.” 
And elsewhere in the same work he observes,§ “ Many a 
grown animal still takes pleasure in the mock combats that 
he learned in youth. From a psychological point of view 
this phenomenon is especially noteworthy, from the fact that 
the adult animal, though already well acquainted with real 
fighting, still knows how to keep within the bounds of play, 
and must therefore be consciously playing a réle, making 
* « Animal Life and Intelligence,” p. 400. “ Introduction to Com- 
parative Psychology,” p. 369. 
+ “ Animal Intelligence,” p. 444, 
{ “The Play of Animals,” p. 299. § Op. cit., p. 145. 
