Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1908-12-01
ANIMALS AT PLAY.
Something About the Sports of Seals
and Offers.

something ABOUT tne OPOTtS VI SSe'e
and Offers.
One day last summer as 1 lay lazily
rocking in a boat just off the shore OF
Lake Michigan a gull flew quickly
through the blue above me, and follow
ing his haSty flight there came three
blackbirds in hot pursuit Apparently
in wild terror, the white bird fed south
ward. doubled on its tracks, dropped
through the heavy leaves of linden
in a vain attempt to elude the three,
and dashed on again. sat up to watch,
my sympathies all with the poor fugi-
tive. After long lodging back and
forth overhead. during which the black
birds tweaked more than one white
feather from the gulls tail, his broad
wings seemed TO tire the tOrmentOrs
out. One by one they dropped from the
chase, until he was sailing southwark
alone and unmOlested.
I breathed a sigh of relief, and was
about to lie down again, when the gull
apparently discovered for the first time
that he was no longer the object Of
pursuit He deliberately turned back,
sailing low over the tree in which the
last blackbird had retired to take his
breath he uttered low call Of defiance,
and the blackbird, springing up at the
sound, recommended the chase. One
by one the gull picked up the rest of
his pursuers, and for half an hour long
er the play went on. At last all four
of the birds alighted in the great linden
that grew close to the waters edge, and
as l softly rowed past 1 saw them, the
gull sitting on one branch, his three
sooty playmates on another, and the
quartet to all appearance exchanging
thoroughly satisfied comments on the
game they had just finished.
That evening l watched the children
of the household at their game of tag,
and the little scene of the afternoon
vas forcibly recalled 1t is the most
primitive of all games, that of tag
pursuer and pursued. Played in earn
est it is the one game of all savage
nature-the game by which the tiger
SGCulGS It's prey. lllC IlSClN'
the cat its mouse, and the bird the in
sects on which it lives. 1t is no Won
der, then, that the young of all animals
should rejoice in the game. l have sat
| by the hour and watched the gray
squirrels chase each other in turn up
the tall pines and down them, leaping
across from bOugh to bOugh, flying, it
seemed. from one tree to its neighbOr.
And the delight of kittens in chasing
each other is too familiar for comment
Should a playmate Of their own kind
be lacking they will make spool the
representative of the mouse they are
to hunt i'm their mature years; or, lack
ing even the spool, their own tails will
do, but they must chase something.
Dogs are as fond of the game, as their
friends we'll realize. and I have seen
mice. too. playing about the floor in
much the same fashion as two kittens,
Perhaps. since the mouse is not a hun
ter. but one Of the hunted, we may
consider that t.. V were getting in
training" to elude the pursuer. not to
hunt their own meat.
Next to tag in popularity with the
animal kingdom is a sort of adaptation
Of leapfrog. Fish are said to be par
ticularly fond Of this game: certainly
they often seem to be chasing each 9TH
er in mere sport. and to be leaping. one
after the other. over some obstruction
they choose to use as a hurdle. In Il
certain aquarium built out into the
water. the attendant AYERS. he one day
watched school of young garfish
playing leapfrog over the back of a
turtle One after the other they took
the leap. and returned to repeat the