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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