WAYS OF NATURE 
it were a mouse; dogs race and wrestle with one 
another as in the chase; ducks dive and sport in the 
water; doves circle and dive in the air as if es- 
caping from a hawk; birds pursue and dodge one 
another in the same way; bears wrestle and box; 
chickens have mimic battles; colts run and leap; 
fawns probably do the same thing; squirrels play 
something like a game of tag in the trees; lambs butt 
one another and skip about the rocks; and so on. 
In fact, nearly all play, including much of that of 
man, takes the form of mock battle, and is to that 
extent an education for the future. Among the car- 
nivora it takes also the form of the chase. Its spring 
and motive are, of course, pleasure, and not educa- 
tion; and herein again is revealed the cunning of 
nature — the power that conceals purposes of its 
own in our most thoughtless acts. The cat and the 
kitten play with the live mouse, not to indulge the 
sense of cruelty, as some have supposed, but to in- 
dulge in the pleasure of the chase and unconsciously 
to practice the feat of capture. The cat rarely plays 
with a live bird, because the recapture would be more 
difficult, and might fail. What fisherman would not 
like to take his big fish over and over again, if he 
could be sure of doing it, not from cruelty, but for 
the pleasure of practicing his art? For further light 
on the subject of the significance of the play of ani- 
mals, I refer the reader to the work of Professor 
Karl Groos called “The Play of Animals.” 
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